18 vol 5 epaper

Vol.5 No. 18 August 18-24, 2012 60 Cents Follow us on TheSouthAsianTimes.info

SPECIAL EDITION CELEBRATING THE

66TH INDEPENDENCE DAY OF INDIA

Religion 15 Bollywood 19 London Olympics 24 Spiritual Awareness 30

NEW YORK EDITION

Sahara Groupbuys NY's PlazaHotel for $570 M

Business,Page 23

Arizona don nameddean of PaceUniversity SchoolNationalCommunity,Page 8

Tulsi Gabbard: FirstHindu in race for USHouse

Immersion inanother culture:China diary

Travel,Page 16


Olympics: Saina in semis,Paes-Sania in quarters,

Vijender in boxing quartersGagan Narang with bronze lone medalist so far.

London: Champion shuttler SainaNehwal rewrote history by becomingthe first Indian to cruise into theOlympics badminton semi-final whilethe crack mixed doubles tennis combi-nation of Leander Paes and Sania Mirzastormed into the quarter finals at theLondon Games here Thursday.

So, India’s medal hopes are alive afterGagan Narang opened the country’saccount with a bronze in the men's 10-meter air rifle event.

The fourth seeded Saina won 21-15,22-20 over former World No.1 DaneTine Baun at the Wembley Arena,before Leander-Sania blazed past theformidable Serbian pair of NenadZimonjic and Ana Ivanovic, 6-2, 6-4 atWimbledon court.

Vijender Singh entered the quarterfi-nal of the men's boxing 75 kg categorywith a close 16-15 points victory overhis US opponent Terrel Gausha. Abronze medalist in the Beijing AsianGames four years ago, he will take on

Uzbek Abbos Atoev in the round of lasteight Monday.

Inspired by Saina's performance,Parupalli Kashyap played his heart outagainst top seed Lee Chong Wei ofMalaysia but in the end lost the men'ssingles quarter final 19-21 and 11-21.

However, before Saina took to thecourt, India's date with the Olympicsbegan with a double heartbreakThursday as highly-rated double trapmarksman Ronjan Singh Sodhi failed tomake the final while pugilist JaiBhagwan fell by the wayside in the pre-quarterfinals.

Saina would now face reigningWorld Champion and top seed WangYihan for a place in the final. TheChinese has a 5-0 record against theIndian, but Saina's superb form in thecompetition is encouraging. If sheloses in the semis, Saina would go forbronze medal play-off and bring thecountry its first Olympic medal fromthe sport. Continued on page 4

Shuttler Saina Nehwal and (left) shooterGagan Narang

Team Anna calls off fast,to enter politics

New Delhi: Social activistAnna Hazare and his teamhave announced they wouldcall off their indefinite fastagainst corruption and pro-posed forming a "politicalalternative" as an answer toan "unresponsive" govern-ment.

Making the announcementto thousands of flag-wavingcheering supporters, Hazaresaid he and Team Anna, as

Continued on page 4 Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal on fast

Community excited over 1st IndiaDay Parade on Long Island

By Parveen Chopra

Hicksville, NY: The Inaugural India DayParade of Long Island on August 11 now hasa Grand Marshall in Bollywood superstarVinod Khanna even as it continues to garnerendorsements from officials and has lined upbig-ticket sponsors.

The Indian community is united and excit-ed about the parade to celebrate India's 66thIndependence Day in style in Hicksville withthe theme "Celebrating Democracy andUnity."

The parade has full support from the officeof County Executive Ed Mangano and Townof Oyster Bay Supervisor Jon Venditto, thetown in which the parade venue falls.

The Grand Marshall Vinod Khanna will bejoined at the parade by Ambassador PrabhuDayal, Hon. Mangano, Supervisor Venditto and Grand Sponsor Harry Singh of BollaOil. Many other prominent officials, political leaders and judges will also march in theparade. More than 30 community organiza-tions are participating.

The 3-day celebratory event commences

with the Parade on August 11 starting at 1.00p.m. from Patel Brothers Plaza as thousandswalk one mile north on Broadway displayingcolorful banners and waving Indian andAmerican flags. Continued on page 4

Bollywood superstar Vinod Khanna will be the Grand Marshall.

TheSouthAsianTimes.infoVol. 5 | No. 18 | August 18-24, 2012 | 60 Cents Follow us on

The South Asian TimesAstrology 74 Spiritual Awareness 76Humor 75

C o n g r a t u l a t i o n s o n t h e6 6 t h i n d e p e n d e n C e d ay o f i n d i a

Excellence In Journalism

CG Prabhu Dayal rings Nasdaq Bell on 15th August

India Day Special, Page 5

First India Day Pa-rade of Long Island a grand success

India Day Special, Page 16-22

Sunita Williams greets Indians from space


Why I love my India


National Community 68Religion 15 Bollywood 19 London Olympics 24 Spiritual Awareness 30

NEW YORK EDITION

Sahara Groupbuys NY's PlazaHotel for $570 M

Business,Page 23

Arizona don nameddean of PaceUniversity SchoolNationalCommunity,Page 8

Tulsi Gabbard: FirstHindu in race for USHouse

Immersion inanother culture:China diary

Travel,Page 16


Olympics: Saina in semis,Paes-Sania in quarters,

Vijender in boxing quartersGagan Narang with bronze lone medalist so far.

London: Champion shuttler SainaNehwal rewrote history by becomingthe first Indian to cruise into theOlympics badminton semi-final whilethe crack mixed doubles tennis combi-nation of Leander Paes and Sania Mirzastormed into the quarter finals at theLondon Games here Thursday.

So, India’s medal hopes are alive afterGagan Narang opened the country’saccount with a bronze in the men's 10-meter air rifle event.

The fourth seeded Saina won 21-15,22-20 over former World No.1 DaneTine Baun at the Wembley Arena,before Leander-Sania blazed past theformidable Serbian pair of NenadZimonjic and Ana Ivanovic, 6-2, 6-4 atWimbledon court.

Vijender Singh entered the quarterfi-nal of the men's boxing 75 kg categorywith a close 16-15 points victory overhis US opponent Terrel Gausha. Abronze medalist in the Beijing AsianGames four years ago, he will take on

Uzbek Abbos Atoev in the round of lasteight Monday.

Inspired by Saina's performance,Parupalli Kashyap played his heart outagainst top seed Lee Chong Wei ofMalaysia but in the end lost the men'ssingles quarter final 19-21 and 11-21.

However, before Saina took to thecourt, India's date with the Olympicsbegan with a double heartbreakThursday as highly-rated double trapmarksman Ronjan Singh Sodhi failed tomake the final while pugilist JaiBhagwan fell by the wayside in the pre-quarterfinals.

Saina would now face reigningWorld Champion and top seed WangYihan for a place in the final. TheChinese has a 5-0 record against theIndian, but Saina's superb form in thecompetition is encouraging. If sheloses in the semis, Saina would go forbronze medal play-off and bring thecountry its first Olympic medal fromthe sport. Continued on page 4

Shuttler Saina Nehwal and (left) shooterGagan Narang

Team Anna calls off fast,to enter politics

New Delhi: Social activistAnna Hazare and his teamhave announced they wouldcall off their indefinite fastagainst corruption and pro-posed forming a "politicalalternative" as an answer toan "unresponsive" govern-ment.

Making the announcementto thousands of flag-wavingcheering supporters, Hazaresaid he and Team Anna, as

Continued on page 4 Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal on fast

Community excited over 1st IndiaDay Parade on Long Island

By Parveen Chopra

Hicksville, NY: The Inaugural India DayParade of Long Island on August 11 now hasa Grand Marshall in Bollywood superstarVinod Khanna even as it continues to garnerendorsements from officials and has lined upbig-ticket sponsors.

The Indian community is united and excit-ed about the parade to celebrate India's 66thIndependence Day in style in Hicksville withthe theme "Celebrating Democracy andUnity."

The parade has full support from the officeof County Executive Ed Mangano and Townof Oyster Bay Supervisor Jon Venditto, thetown in which the parade venue falls.

The Grand Marshall Vinod Khanna will bejoined at the parade by Ambassador PrabhuDayal, Hon. Mangano, Supervisor Venditto and Grand Sponsor Harry Singh of BollaOil. Many other prominent officials, political leaders and judges will also march in theparade. More than 30 community organiza-tions are participating.

The 3-day celebratory event commences

with the Parade on August 11 starting at 1.00p.m. from Patel Brothers Plaza as thousandswalk one mile north on Broadway displayingcolorful banners and waving Indian andAmerican flags. Continued on page 4

Bollywood superstar Vinod Khanna will be the Grand Marshall.

India celebrates 66th Independence

Day with vigorIndia celebrates

66th Independence Day with vigor

Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh addressing the Nation for the 9th consecutive time on the occasion of 66th Independence Day from the ramparts of Red Fort in Delhi on August 15.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh fe-licitated the 6 Indian medal winners at London Olympics at a function in New Delhi on August 17. Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports, Ajay Mak-en, UPA Chair person Sonia Gandhi and Smt Gursharan Kaur are also seen.

But prime minister and president’s speeChes Betray anxiety over slowing eConomy and anti-Corruption protests.

New Delhi: India and Indians everywhere celebrated the 65th anniversary of India’s independence with gusto at parades and special functions unfurling the tricolor.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh unfurled the national flag and addressed the nation for the ninth consecutive year from a closed enclosure from the ramparts of Red Fort in Delhi.

Dignitaries, guests and school children, who were present in large numbers, cheered loudly and sang the national anthem with vigor both at the beginning and end of the event. Numerous balloons were re-leased after the PM’s speech concluded.

Security agencies left no stone unturned to ensure an incident-free Independence Day celebrations in Delhi even though there was no specific intelligence input about a possible terror strike.

In all Indian state capitals also the day was celebrat-ed with traditional pomp and show. News kept coming from across the world also of Indian missions and com-munities celebrating India’s 66th Independence Day.

Continues on page 6

This issue of the SATimes is India Day Special.

TheSouthAsianTimes.info August 18-24, 2012

5

August 18-24, 2012

TheSouthAsianTimes.infoIndia Day Special

New York: As in previous years,

NASDAQ invited Ambassador

Prabhu Dayal, Consul General of

India, to ring the Opening Bell on

Wednesday, August 15, 2012 to cele-

brate India’s 66th Independence Day.

The NASDAQ billboard flashed the

Indian tri-color with accompanied

words 'NASDAQ Celebrates India’s

Independence Day - August 15,

2012.’

During his brief speech,

Ambassador Dayal said that he was

highly privileged and honored to have

been invited to ring the NASDAQ

Bell on the eve of India’s

Independence Day. This, he said, indi-

cates the ever growing relationship

between NASDAQ and India. He also

said that he was privileged to have

been invited to ring the NASDAQ

Closing Bell in 2009, 2010 and 2011

for celebrating India’s Independence

Day. Stating that this gesture of NAS-

DAQ is a recognition of the fact that

India has become a global power-

house, he added that Infosys,

Cognizant Technologies,

MakeMyTrip.com, Rediff.com. and

Sify Technologies Ltd. are all mem-

bers of the NASDAQ 100 Index

which is one of the most prestigious

and widely followed indices of the

world.

Referring to the global financial

meltdown of 2008, which has far

reaching consequences, Ambassador

Dayal said that in a globalized world

such developments have ramifications

beyond borders and, therefore, would

need to be tackled through coordinat-

ed global action.

With regard to infrastructure devel-

opment and investment in India,

Ambassador Dayal said that the

Government of India is pursuing poli-

cies which encourage investment in

infrastructure and expressed his confi-

dence that NASDAQ will continue to

focus the interest of investors on the

opportunities provided by India and

thus play a positive and helpful role in

the growth of Indian economy. The

ceremony was attended by the

Consulate officials as well as mem-

bers of the Indian community.

Ambassador Prabhu Dayal ringing the bell

AmbassadorHardeep Singh Puri,Permanent Representative of India to UN

unfurled the national tricolor at thePermanent Mission premises and read

out salient excerpts from PresidentPranab Mukherjee’s address to the

nation. The brief and impressive ceremo-ny saw a well-attended turn out of over

150 guests including prominent membersof the Indian American community, sen-ior Indian officials of the United Nations,Indian Army and Police officers on depu-tation to the UN, in addition to officialsfrom PMI and the Consulate General of

India, New York and their families.Ambassador Vijay Nambiar, the specialadviser on Myanmar to U.N. Secretary-

General also graced the occasion.

Ambassador Dayal with Indian community members

Consul General Prabhu Dayalinvited to ring opening bell

at NASDAQ on Aug 15

New York: The Consulate General of

India, New York hosted a Reception on

15th August 2012 to mark the 65th

Anniversary of India’s Independence.

About 250 guests, including prominent

members of the Indian-American commu-

nity and local dignitaries such as

Ambassador Frank G. Wisner, Ambassador

Manjeev Singh Puri, Deputy Permanent

Representative of India to the United

Nations, and other community leaders

attended the celebrations.

Warmly greeting and welcoming the

guests, Ambassador Prabhu Dayal, Consul

General of India, read out excerpts from

the President's message delivered on the

eve of the Independence Day. The full text

of the President’s speech was read out earlier

to all members of the Consulate. During his

speech, Ambassador Dayal said that the Indian community

in the USA has been contributing immensely to the friend-

ship between India and USA. The vibrant community has

also been organizing functions in various parts of USA to

commemorate India’s Independence, he added.

Ambassador Frank G. Wisner, in his remarks said that he

had the privilege of serving as US Ambassador to India

from 1994-97 and since then, relations between the two

countries have increased manifold in various fields, such

as political, economic, defense, science & technology, etc.

He also lauded the Indo-American community for its con-

tribution in furthering relations between the two countries.

Ambassador Manjeev Puri, Deputy Permanent

Representative of Indian Permanent Mission to the UN, in

his address said that during the last 18 months of India’s

UN Security Council membership, India and USA have

been working very closely in various fields.

Other prominent Indian-American community leaders

who addressed the gathering included Dr. Thomas

Abraham, Chairman, Global Organization of People of

Indian Origin Inc., Mr. Ramesh Patel, President Federation

of Indian Association, Mrs. Ranju Batra, President,

Association of Indian Americans. Leaders of Regional

Associations and media heads also addressed the audience.

Ambassador Dayal, along with the dignitaries and

prominent Indian-Americans representing various associa-

tions and fields jointly cut the cake in celebration of this

joyous occasion.

I-Day celebrated at New York Consulate

Ambassador Dayal along with prominent Indian Americans cut the cake on the joyous occasion

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7

August 18-24, 2012


New Delhi: India's economic growth has

been hurt due to lack of political consen-

sus on many issues, Prime Minister

Manmohan Singh declared.

Addressing the nation on India's 66th

Independence Day, Manmohan Singh also

vowed to battle corruption while ensuring

that sincere officials were not affected by

baseless allegations of wrongdoing.

In a speech directed primarily at the

domestic audience, the prime minister --

making his ninth speech from the Red Fort

-- made no reference to Pakistan or any

other country.

The prime minister said India was

unable to create the environment for rapid

economic growth "because of a lack of

political consensus on many issues".

"Time has now come to view the issue

which affect our development processes as

matters of national security."

The economist-turned-politician, who

became prime minister in May 2004, did

not dwell on the issues that were eluding a

political consensus.

Again, without elaborating, he referred

to "domestic developments which are hin-

dering our economic growth".

Despite 20 years of widely acclaimed

economic reforms, the political establish-

ment is still divided on certain growth

issues. In recent times, the government has

faced flak from the opposition on allowing

foreign direct investment in retail trade,

strongly favored by the US.

Speaking a day after yoga guru Baba

Ramdev ended his fast against corruption

and black money, the prime minister said

his government would take steps to battle

corruption.

"We will continue our efforts to bring

more transparency and accountability in

the work of public servants and to reduce

corruption," he said, reading out a pre-

pared speech in Hindi from a bullet proof

cubicle. "But we will also take care that

those measures do not result in a situation

in which the morale of public functionar-

ies... gets affected because of baseless alle-

gations and unnecessary litigation."

He hoped that the Rajya Sabha would

soon pass the Lokpal and Lokayukta bills

already cleared by the Lok Sabha.

India, he said, cannot escape the global

economic crisis. But the country's GDP

growth would still be "a little better" than

last year's 6.5 percent. The 12th Five Year

Plan would lay down measures to increase

the economic growth rate from 6.5 to 9

percent in the last year of the Plan, he

added.

In a reference to Assam, where ethnic

violence claimed over 70 lives, he said

authorities were doing everything possible

to provide relief to everyone.

Manmohan Singh also outlined his gov-

ernment's successes. He said almost all vil-

lages had been electrified, and the govern-

ment's target was to provide electricity to

every household in India in the next five

years. The government was also formulat-

ing a scheme to give away free medicines

through government hospitals and health

centres, he said.Over the next five years,

eight crore Indians will be taught skill

development by a specialized agency to

cope with the needs of an expanding econ-

omy, he added.

“Communal harmony has to be main-

tained at all costs... The incidents which

occurred in Pune in the beginning of this

month point to the need for much more

work to be done in the area of national

security."

Manmohan Singh concluded his speech

on a positive note. "No power in the world

can stop our country from achieving new

heights of progress and development."

Manmohan Singh addressing the nation on India's 66th Independence Day from Red Fort

Manmohan moans lack of consensus

New Delhi: President Pranab

Mukherjee made a veiled attack at

"endemic" protests against corrup-

tion warning that the country

would be "flirting with chaos" if

its democratic institutions come

under an assault.

Addressing the nation on the eve

of the 66th Independence Day,

The President said when authority

becomes authoritarian, democracy

suffers "but when protest becomes

endemic, we are flirting with

chaos."

"Democracy is a shared process.

We all win or lose together.

Democratic temper calls for digni-

ty of behaviour and tolerance of

contrary views. Parliament will

live by its own calendar and

rhythm.

"Sometimes that rhythm sounds

a bit atonal but in a democracy

there is always judgment day, an

election. Parliament is the soul of

the people, the atman of India. We

challenge its rights and duties at

our peril," Mukherjee said.

He said he was saying this not in

a spirit of admonition but as plea

for greater understanding of exis-

tential issues that lurk behind the

mask of the mundane.

"Democracy is blessed with a

unique opportunity for redress of

grievance through the great insti-

tutions of accountability -- free

elections," Mukherjee said.

Mincing no words in underlin-

ing the dangers in undermining

institutions like Parliament, he

said legislation cannot be

wrenched away from legislature or

justice from judiciary.

The President's comments

against the backdrop of anti-cor-

ruption protests of Anna Hazare

and Ramdev came in his maiden

address to the nation on the eve of

66th Independence Day.

Mukherjee said, "anger against

the bitter pandemic of corruption

is legitimate, as is the protest

against this plague that is eroding

the capability and potential of our

nation. "There are times when

people lose their patience but it

cannot become an excuse for an

assault on our democratic institu-

tions," he said without referring to

either Hazare or Ramdev.

The President, a veteran parlia-

mentarian, said the institutions

were the visible pillars of the

Constitution and if they crack,

then the idealism of the

Constitution cannot hold.

In his address, the President said

if Indian economy has achieved

critical mass, then it must become

a launching pad for the next leap.

Referring to last month's horrific

violence in Assam, Mukherjee

said that minorities needed solace,

understanding and protection from

aggression. "Violence is not an

option; violence is an invitation to

greater violence," he underlined.

Although India won only six

medals at the London Olympics,

sportspersons had done the coun-

try proud, Mukherjee said. "The

number of trophies may not be too

large but it is a remarkable

improvement upon the last count,"

Mukherjee said.

"Four years later, when I hope to

address you again, I am sure we

will celebrate a medals spring!"

President Pranab Mukherjee laying wreath at the Amar Jawan Jyotiat India Gate in New Delhi

Chaos if protests become endemic: Pranab

BJP terms PM's speechdisappointing

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party

(BJP) termed Prime Minister Manmohan

Singh's Independence Day speech as "dis-

appointing" and lacking direction on issues

facing the country, while Gujarat Chief

Minister Narendra Modi said he should

have specified the policy on infiltration

from Bangladesh.

BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said

that prime minister's speech failed to

inspire people.

"It was a disappointing speech... PM's

speech was completely listless and a speech

which did not instil new confidence in the

nation. The speech did not give any direc-

tion on the issues the nation and the people

of the country are facing - price rise, infla-

tion, corruption, black money, slowing

economy, monsoon deficit and drought. It

did not address any of these issues," he

said.

Speaking in Junagadh in Gujarat, Modi

said people wanted to know government's

policy towards infiltration from

Bangladesh, contending that this was

becoming an issue of concern.

Modi also accused the prime minister of

dual standards about the ethnic violence in

Assam and subsequent violence during a

protest rally in Mumbai.

8

August 18-24, 2012


I-Day in Frames

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh inspecting the Guard of Honor at Red Fort

New Delhi: Rain played the perfect tease,

drizzling just a little for a couple of min-

utes on a hot sultry evening as President

Pranab Mukherjee hosted his first 'At

Home' reception and injected a popular

touch to his presidency by dismantling the

barriers between the VIPs and other invit-

ed guests.

Ministers, politicians, diplomats,

socialites and journalists were among

more than 500 guests invited at the recep-

tion held on the sprawling lawns of

Rashtrapati Bhavan on the occasion of

India's 66th Independence Day. The cere-

monies played by the clock.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,

United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chair-

person Sonia Gandhi, Vice President

Hamid Ansari and Lok Sabha Speaker

Meira Kumar sat under a maroon canopy

waiting for the president to arrive.

It looked like it was going to rain any

minute and it drizzled also a bit as

Mukherjee, elegantly dressed in a black

sherwani, arrived at 6 p.m. sharp.

The army band played the national

anthem, with assembled guests standing at

attention as a mark of respect.

Accompanied by senior aides, Mukherjee

went around greeting the guests with fold-

ed hands.

After the national anthem, the barriers

that divided the so-called VIP guests -

ministers, ambassadors and senior diplo-

mats - and other invited guests were done

away with, letting everyone greet

Mukherjee.

This small gesture signalled Mukherjee's

style of bringing a popular touch to his

nascent presidency.

In the last few At Home receptions host-

ed by his predecessor, the VIPs and other

invited guests were segregated, leaving

those outside the hallowed category in a

sulk.

This time, the interaction was more ani-

mated and the atmosphere was more

cheerful despite an intensely humid

evening.

Gandhi, who could not attend the last 'At

Home' reception as she was away abroad

recuperating from a surgery for an undis-

closed medical condition, looked quite

serene dressed in a cream white sari.

Among the ministers who were found

chatting frequently with invited guests

were Law Minister Salman Khurshid,

Finance Minister P. Chidambaram,

Commerce and Industry Minister Anand

Sharma, Minister of State in the Prime

Minister's Office V. Narayanasamy and

Power Minister M. Veerappa Moily.

Justice Mohit S. Shah, Chief Justice, Bombay High Court, inaugurated a unique exhibition on the history and heritage of the Bombay High Court, in Mumbai

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh paying homage at Raj Ghat

President Pranab Mukherjee with Vice President Hamid Ansari, Prime MinisterManmohan Singh and other dignitaries at the 'At Home' function at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Dignitaries coming out from the Red Fort after the Prime MinisterManmohan Singh's address to the nation in Delhi

A popular touch toPresident Pranab's reception

9

August 18-24, 2012


Omar asks separatists to

abjure violence

Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Chief

Minister Omar Abdullah again urged

separatists to join the dialogue

process for lasting peace in the state.

Addressing the main Independence

Day parade at Bakshi Stadium here,

Abdullah asked the separatists to

abjure violence for the state's overall

development.

The chief minister said neither vio-

lence nor development would resolve

the Kashmir problem, which needed a

political resolution.

The official functions connected

with the 66th Independence Day of

the country passed off peacefully in

summer capital Srinagar and else-

where in the Kashmir Valley.

The chief minister took salute at the

parade in which smartly turned out

contingents of state police, paramili-

tary forces, fire and emergency serv-

ices and school children participated.

Abdullah unfurled the national flag

at the stadium. Referring to his stand

on the revocation of the Armed

Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA),

Abdullah said: "To a large extend the

militancy related incidents have come

down over the years.

"It is our endeavor to reduce the

footprints of the security forces in the

state. I can with pride that all schools

have been vacated by the security

forces."

He added that 250 "other buildings

under the occupation of the security

forces have also been vacated".

"More than 40 bunkers have been

Kites fill Delhi skies inspirit of freedom

New Delhi: The spirit of freedom scaled colour-

ful heights in the skies of the capital throughout

Wednesday when thousands of professional and

amateur kite fliers took to the rooftops and

streets to celebrate the Independence Day ritual

of kite-flying.

"Kite flying as a tradition is much older than

the Olympics. In the capital, kite flying as a pub-

lic sport goes back much before Independence

Day, almost 80 years before the country freed

itself from the British rule. Now, it is a dying

tradition because the present generation does not

know how to fly kites," Sudhir Sobti of Delhi

Tourism and Transport Development

Corporation said.

Delhi Tourism organized a day's kite flying

festival at the Garden of Five Senses at Mehrauli

in the capital, where kite fliers from old Delhi,

the birth place of the tradition, came to show off

their skills of flying multiple kites on a single

thread."The high point of the festival was flying

100 kites on one thread by Bhai Miyan and his

sons," Sobti said.

The Delhi Tourism official said: "The idea of

the government was to revive the old tradition,

keep new fliers updated about the tradition and

initiate novices."

Delhi Tourism, which has been hosting the

Independence Day kite festival for the last two

years, will organise a kite festival at India Gate

in November, Sobti said.

Kite flying as a tradition grew out of Old

Delhi where artisans still make a variety of

kites. The oldest and biggest kite market is at

Lal Kuan in the old city, where "patangbaazi"

began as a sport. Some historians say the tradi-

tion dates back to the days of the Mahabharata.

Kites were not only used for receiving messages

but also for measuring distances during war.

Kite fighting is the most exciting feature of

flying kites. The Indian fighter kites are crafted

from thin paper that can take on the wind to

scale heights. The thread which hoists the fight-

er kite is strengthened with crushed glass, egg,

pigeon droppings and wax so that it cannot be

snapped cut by rival kites.

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit kick-starts a kite-flying competition

Patriotic fervor marks I-Daycelebrations in Andhra

Hyderabad: Patriotic fervor marked the 66th

Independence Day celebrations across Andhra Pradesh.

The main official celebration was held at Secunderabad

Parade Grounds in the state capital where Chief Minister

N. Kiran Kumar Reddy unfurled the national flag and

reviewed the colorful passing out parade by police contin-

gents.

In an open top jeep, he went around the sprawling

grounds to reviewed the contingents of police, Scouts and

Guides and NCC amid tight security.

Various welfare and development schemes of the gov-

ernment were highlighted by tableaux of different depart-

ments. Kiran Kumar Reddy gave away awards to merito-

rious policemen.

Addressing the gathering, the chief minister announced

that an additional 30 lakh acres of land would be

irrigated under 'Jalayagnam' programme over

next two years. The ambitious programme has

already irrigated 21 lakh acres.

Kiran Kumar Reddy said the state had urged

the centre to link Mahatma Gandhi National

Rural Employment Guarantee scheme with irri-

gation so that farmers can benefit from it.

Listing out various welfare schemes like Rajiv

Arogyasri, Indiramma Housing, fee reimburse-

ment, free electricity to farmers and Re.1 a kg

rice, the chief minister said he was visiting every

district to personally monitor their implementa-

tion.

"My government is committed to provide a

transparent, accountable and honest administra-

tion," he said.

Assembly speaker N. Manohar hoisted the national flag

in the assembly premises. Legislative council chairman

Chakrapani did the same in the council building.

State Congress chief Botsa Satyanarayana hoisted the

flag at party headquarters Gandhi Bhavan in the presence

of the Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy and Deputy

Chief Minister Damodar Rajanarasimha.

Main opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) also cele-

brated the day at its headquarters NTR Trust Bhavan. The

leader of opposition N. Chandrababu Naidu unfurled the

national flag.

Y.S. Vijayamma, honorary president of YSR Congress

Party, hoisted the tricolor at the party office.

The celebrations were also held at the offices of TRS,

BJP, CPI, CPI-M and Lok Satta.

Fruits of independenceyet to reach the poor:

Akhilesh

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief

Minister Akhilesh Yadav hoisted

the tri-color and vowed to devel-

op the state within a stipulated

time. Addressing a gathering after

hoisting the national flag, Yadav

said his government was commit-

ted to the welfare of the poor, the

downtrodden, the weaker sections

and the oppressed.

"Serious work has been initiated

by our government. Very soon

people will be able to gauge the

difference from the past," he said.

Pointing out that the govern-

ment had prioritized the power

and infrastructure sectors, the

chief minister said efforts were on

to connect all district headquar-

ters with four lane roads.

Earlier, hoisting the flag at his

official residence, the chief minis-

ter said the fruits of independence

were yet to reach the poor.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav

Andhra Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy inspecting aGuard of Honor at Secunderabad Parade Grounds

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullahhoisting the Indian tri-color at Bakshi Stadium

removed from Srinagar city. Perhaps nobody hoped we

could remove the bunker from Lal Chowk. Ten battalions

of the CRPF have already been de-inducted and sent back.

"We are slowly implementing the rehabilitation for those

who want to return back without guns and the policy is

producing encouraging results. This policy is only for

those who return not to join militancy, but live peacefully.

"Talks on AFSPA are going on. I regret so far we have

not reached a stage when AFSPA can be removed perma-

nently. Talks are still going on and I am satisfied we these

talks.

"I can say with surety that the revocation of AFSPA

would take place during our tenure in office."

Official parades and cultural programs were also held at

various districts in the valley to mark the Independence

Day. Few public and private vehicles plied on the city's

roads.

10

August 18-24, 2012


Mamata asksMaoists to lay

down arms

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief

Minister Mamata Banerjee prom-

ised an attractive rehabilitation

package to Maoists who lay down

weapons and return to mainstream.

"I appeal to the Maoists to lay

down arms. We will ensure that

those who surrender will be ade-

quately rehabilitated and provided

jobs," Banerjee said in her

Independence Day speech here.

Breaking with a tradition in place

since 1948, the city witnessed a

full-fledged Independence Day

pageant after Banerjee shifted the

venue of the celebrations from the

government headquarters at the

Writers' Building to Red Road in

the heart of the city.

Banerjee hoisted the tri-color and

inspected a guard of honor as hun-

dreds witnessed the event.

The celebrations involved color-

ful tableaux presentation by gov-

ernment departments and march

past involving Kolkata Police, West

Bengal Police and Rapid Action

Force besides school students.

Banerjee promised that law and

Gehlot highlights welfareschemes on I-Day

Jaipur: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok

Gehlot on Independence Day said his govern-

ment is committed to the welfare of people in

every section of the society.

"My government's efforts are to provide a

transparent and responsive government," said

Gehlot while unfurling the national flag at the

state-level ceremony in Jaipur's Sawai Man

Singh Stadium here on the occasion of the

66th Independence Day.

"We have, from today, launched a free vet-

erinary medicine scheme in the state," Gehlot

said while highlighting various government

schemes.

Addressing a large gathering, Gehlot said

the government would take appropriate steps

in the districts passing through a drought-like

situation. "We are working towards the devel-

opment of the state," he said.

"We have provided jobs to over 70,000

youths in three years. We plan to give over

1.4 lakh jobs to educated youths this year.

Besides, we have launched an unemployed

allowance scheme," Gehlot said.

The chief minister said his government had

also launched the Chief Minister BPL Awas

Yojana under which every year, 100,00 hous-

es would be provided to the below-poverty

line (BPL) families living in urban areas.

"Work on the Metro rail project in Jaipur is

going at full speed and the first phase is likely

to be completed by June 2013," he said.

"Construction of the 3,300-km road net-

work to connect villages will start soon," he

said.

The chief minister also honoured 38 police

and government officers on the Independence

Day.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on 66th Independence Day

Low key I-Day celebrations in MaharashtraMumbai: Maharashtra celebrated

Independence Day in a sombre mood

amid flag hoisting ceremonies and

singing of national anthem at most

places in the state.

The celebrations were subdued and

kept low key due to the death of

union minister and former chief min-

ister Vilasrao Deshmukh. In

Mumbai, Chief Minister Prithviraj

Chavan hoisted the tricolor at the

state secretariat Mantralaya.

Governor K. Sankaranarayanan

unfurled the national flag at Council

Hall in Pune. Deputy Chief Minister

Ajit Pawar, socialist Dr. Mohan

Dharia and legislators were also

present.

Maharashtra Pradesh Congress

Committee president Manikrao

Thakre hoisted the national flag at

Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan in Mumbai.

Schools and colleges in Mumbai

and other towns also hoisted the

national flags and celebrated the day

with patriotic fervor. Members of

housing societies also marked the

day by unfurling the tricolor.

Kullu (Himachal Pradesh): In the run up to assembly

elections, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Prem Kumar

Dhumal announced sops for government employees and

pensioners."The government will provide 7 percent dear-

ness allowance to all state employees and pensioners due

from January," he said in his Independence Day speech

here. "This will cost Rs.350 crore to the state exchequer."

He announced enhancement in social security pension to

Rs.450 a month from Rs.400. "It will be effective from

September 1 and would benefit about 300,000 beneficiar-

ies."For daily wagers, Dhumal announced the increase in

salary of daily wagers from Rs.130 to Rs.150 and daily

allowance of Home Guard volunteers from Rs.200 to

Rs.225. Both will come into effect from Sep

For the welfare of police force, the chief minister

announced that all constables completing 20 years of serv-

ices will be designated as honorary head constables. For

students, Dhumal announced a cash award of Rs.31,000 to

the students belonging to the state admitted to IIT/IIM,

besides an annual scholarship of Rs.15,000 to 2,000 girls

ranking at top 2,000 positions in Class XII examination of

the Himachal Pradesh Board of School Education.

On the occasion, the chief minister launched the netbook

distribution scheme under which 4,000 toppers of matric

will be provided notbooks. He announced to provide 50

percent subsidy on wheat seed and fodder to the drought-

hit farmers.Though elections to the 68-member assembly

are due in December, they are likely to be held in

November.

No electricity, no vote:Nitish Kumar

Patna: In a piece of good news for

the millions of power-starved in

Bihar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar

announced that he will not ask for

votes in the 2015 assembly elec-

tions if his government fails to pro-

vide electricity to the villages.

"I will not ask people to vote for

us in the next state assembly polls if

we fail to provide electricity to each

village in Bihar by 2015," Kumar

said at an official function to mark

Independence Day here.

Kumar said electricity has

become the main focus of his

Janata Dal-United -led government.

"We have been working seriously

on the electricity front to provide it

to all in next few years," he said.

Kumar said the state government

had already demanded its share in

an upcoming thermal power plant

of the National Thermal Power

Corporation in Barh in Patna dis-

trict. Besides, his government has

cleared other power projects in the

private sector in the state, he said.

By promising electricity to all in

Bihar, Kumar has sent a message of

hope to the people, majority of

whom are still living in the lantern

age due to shortage of power in the

state.

While Bihar's daily power

requirement is between 2,500 and

3,000 MW, the state produces

merely 100 MW, said a BSEB offi-

cial, who did not want to be named.

The central government supplies

1,100-1,200 MW power to the

state. Bihar is facing a deficit of

over 1,200 MW, they said.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar

Maharashtra Chief MinisterPrithviraj Chavan

HimachalPradesh ChiefMinister Prem

Kumar Dhumalunfurling the

tri-color

order situation in the state was under control and

warned people against indulging in violence.

"Riots cause unnecessary loss of life and property. It

disturbs peace and retards growth and development,"

she said.

"On this auspicious day let us all pledge that we will

sternly deal with murder, rape and other atrocities espe-

cially on women." Banerjee reiterated her government's

commitment to restore the lost glory of West Bengal.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjeehoisting the tri-color

Dhumal announces sops on I-Day

12

August 18-24, 2012


Chandyannounces

welfare meas-ures on I-Day

Thiruvananthapuram:

Kerala Chief Minister

Oommen Chandy on the

Independence Day

announced a series of wel-

fare measures, among them

free treatment for poor

women and children in all

government hospitals

Thursday onwards.

"The entire treatment will

be free and will include trav-

el expenses to and from the

hospital. Pregnancies and

other ailments would be cov-

ered," said Chandy while

addressing the Independence

Day parade here.

He also said the Right to

Services would become

effective Nov 1 where select

services such as issuing of

certificates would have to be

provided within a specified

time period. Also, from the

next fiscal, all social pen-

sions will be credited to the

bank account of the person

concerned, Chandy said.

In six months, all backlog

vacancies for the physically

challenged, the Scheduled

Castes and the Scheduled

Tribes would be filled, he

said."My government will

see that all have a home and

access to clean drinking

water," he said.

"Through two new

schemes my government has

launched, an estimated four

lakh unemployed youths will

be able to stand up on their

feet through self-employ-

ment programmes," Chandy

said.He said Kerala, which is

dependant on eggs and milk

from other states, would be

able to meet its requirements

through increased produc-

tion. "We are also confident

that we will be able to

change the quality of educa-

tion here through state-of-

the-art institutions," said

Chandy.He also said that

anyone taking the law into

his or her hands would be

dealt with seriously.

Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy inspects the guard of honor

Karnataka celebratesIndependence Day

Bangalore: Karnataka cel-

ebrated the 66th

Independence Day with

flag-hoisting, singing of

national anthems and

march past by security

forces and children.

Patriotic fervor and cul-

tural fiesta marked the day

across the state, with thou-

sands from all walks of life

participating. In Bangalore,

Chief Minister Jagadish

Shettar unfurled the tri-

color and received the

guard of honor at the Field

Marshal Manekshaw

parade ground amid cheers

by about 8,000 people.

Flower petals were show-

ered on the ground from a

low-flying helicopter of the

Indian Air Force.

The gathering included

hundreds of youths sporting

colourful dress, waving the

national flag and singing

patriotic songs in unison.

Shettar went around the

parade ground in an open

jeep greeting the people

and saluting the men and

women in uniform on a

partly cloudy day.

Shettar, who became

chief minister July 12, wit-

nessed an impressive march

past by the Karnataka State

Reserve Police, Rapid

Action Force, Railway

Police Force, Home

Guards, fire brigade,

National Cadet Corps, traf-

fic wardens, Bharat Scouts

& Guides, Seva Dal volun-

teers and about 1,000 boys

and girls from schools

across the city.

About 2,000 police per-

sonnel were deployed in

and around the ground to

provide security. After

Shettar's speech, the cheer-

ing crowds were treated to

an hour-long cultural pro-

gram including a judo con-

test. A theme on the first

Indian freedom fighter Rani

Abbakkadevi, enacted by

about 650 boys and girls

from a city school in a song

and dance form, was

watched in rapt attention

and drew huge applause.

Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar delivering his addressafter unfurling the tri-color

Efforts on to revive terrorismin Tripura: Sarkar

Agartala: Surrendered militants,

separatist outfits and a section of the

opposition are conspiring to revive

militancy in Tripura, Chief Minister

Manik Sarkar said.

"Although the Bangladesh govern-

ment is pro-active to flush out base

camps of northeast militants, efforts

are on to send tribal youths across

the border to take arms training,"

Sarkar said after unfurling the tricol-

or at the Assam Rifles ground here.

"Though terrorism has been tamed

in Tripura, a section of political lead-

ers are trying to revive it to get polit-

ical mileage. These political forces

are also using surrendered terrorists,"

he said in his speech to mark India's

Independence Day. A CPI-M leader,

Sarkar said that in recent years, 93 to

96 percent people had voted during

elections. He said India was sought

to be ruled by a nexus of politicians,

top bureaucrats and corporate man-

agers.

Taj city celebrates Independence DayAgra: The Taj Mahal city cele-

brated Independence Day with

visible enthusiasm but events

organized by political parties

drew poor crowds.

Such passion and fervor had not

been witnessed in Agra for many

years, thanks to the cooling rain-

bearing clouds. All colleges and

government buildings were deco-

rated and lit up. Schools hoisted

the national flag.

The day began with a race from

Agra's Eklavya Sports Stadium.

"After several years we had

such lovely weather. Many of us

will take a run on the Yamuna

Expressway later in the day," said

insurance agent Sudheir Gupta.

At the Taj, there was a big

crowd waiting to get entry. The

17th century monument to love

has seen unprecedented rush since

the Yamuna Expressway opened.

With the Yamuna flowing in all

glory, the Taj Mahal provided a

breathtaking spectacle.

NCC cadets in colleges joined

parades in smart outfits. Fashion

institute students went around the

city on motorcycles to demon-

strate their patriotic fervour.

At St Peter's College, eminent

homeopath R.S. Pareek hoisted

the tricolour while the students

gave powerful musical drama pre-

sentations.

The Indian flag fluttered on

buildings and vehicles as loud-

speakers blared patriotic film

songs.

A media house organized "Ma

Tujhe Salaam" to promote the

singing of the national anthem.

People were persuaded to halt

for 52 seconds wherever they

were at 10 a.m. at the hooting of

the siren -- to sing the anthem.

Tamil Nadu shouldgrow at 11 percent: Jaya

Chennai: Tamil Nadu should record a

11 percent economic growth, Chief

Minister J. Jayalalithaa said while

asking India to protects the Tamils in

Sri Lanka.

Unfurling the national flag for the

12th time in her political career on

Independence Day, the chief minister

said: "Tamil Nadu should grow at a

rate of 11 percent or more."

She said the state should log a

growth of 20 percent over the expect-

ed Indian economic growth over the

next 10 years.

To develop the human resource

pool, Jayalalithaa said the govern-

ment was offering incentives such as

a free cycle, lap tops, cash incentives,

books and others to school students.

She said new engineering colleges

had been sanctioned and Rs.100 crore

allotted to improve infrastructure in

government colleges. She said over

100,000 vacancies would be filled in

various government departments.

Jayalalithaa said the government

was taking several steps to end power

cuts in the state. Jayalalithaa, who

came to power last year, said 3.5 mil-

lion mixies and grinders, 170,000

cows and 680,000 goats would be dis-

tributed free to the needy during the

current fiscal.

She said the Karnataka govern-

ment's decision not to release

Cauvery river water led to cuts in

short term paddy crop acreage.

The chief minister urged the cental

government to take effective meas-

ures to protect the Tamil community

in Sri Lanka. Later, Jayalalithaa dis-

tributed the Kalpana Chawla Award

for bravery to two women and sweet

packets to differently-abled children.

Independence Day was celebrated

across the state as district collectors

unfurled the tricolor. In many schools,

students turned out for the event with

miniature Indian flags pinned on their

uniforms.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa at the I-Day celebrationsTripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar inspects the parade

14

August 18-24, 2012


Midnight tryst with peace- on India-Pak border

Attari (Punjab): As the midnight

hour approached, Indians and

Pakistanis faced each other across

the border holding candles to rein-

force the spirit of harmony and

shared heritage in troubled times.

It was to celebrate the birth of

one nation and 66 years of inde-

pendence from British rule for

another.

Pakistan celebrates Independence

Day on Aug 14, India a day later.

Citizens from both sides make a

tryst with peace at this border

checkpost every year on the mid-

night of Aug 14-15.

About 100 people gathered at the

road border, about 30 km from

Amritsar, shouting slogans like

"Hind-Pakistan Maitri Zindabad",

"Pakistan Zindabad" and

"Hindustan Zindabad".

Another slogan which rent the air

was "Bhai ko bhai se milne do" (let

the brothers meet).

The crowd, including women and

children, cut across all age groups.

Troopers on both sides had decorat-

ed the respective sides of their bor-

der posts to mark the occasion.

"Every year during the midnight

of Aug 14-15 people from India

and Pakistan place their candles on

ground zero (on the border) to

express their solidarity for each

other," an official said.

Sweets are exchanged and so are

greetings. "Pakistani soldiers send

us sweets like ladoos on Aug 14

and we give them sweets in

exchange. The exchange also hap-

pens on Holi, Diwali and other fes-

tivals," said the official.

The candlelight vigil saw the par-

ticipation of the cast of upcoming

film "Kyaa Dilli Kya Lahore",

unveiling the first look along with

the trailer.Those present were actor-

turned-director Vijay Raaz, Manu

Risihi, Raj Zutshi, Vishwajeet

Pradhan and producer Karan Arora.

A daily feature on the border is

the beating retreat ceremony,

watched by large cheering crowds

on both sides. The formal ceremo-

ny marks the closure of the gates.

The patriotic spirit rules stronger

Aug 15, making it more special.

Children and women swayed to

the tunes of popular songs like

"Rang De Basanti" and "Suno Zor

Se Duniya Walon". On the other

side, songs such as "Sabse Pyara

Hai Mera Pakistan" were played.

Independence Day celebrations at the Wagah border; children duringthe festivities on India-Pakistan border

A walk into JallianwalaBagh on I-Day

Amritsar: It's been over 90 years since

British troops led by Brigadier Reginald

Dyer fired at unarmed Indian protesters at

the Jallianwala Bagh here. But walking

through the narrow passage, leading to the

now clean, green and well-maintained park

whose walls still bear the bullet-marks, man-

ages to evoke a connect.

As you step through the only entry to the

park, a stone plaque there reads - "This is the

place where the bullets were fired from."

You can almost visualize the scene from

April 13, 1919. Hundreds of people still

come to visit the historical site, located in a

congested area near the holy Sikh shrine

Harmandar Sahib, popularly known as

Golden Temple.And on the 66th

Independence Day, it was no different at the

place, now a national memorial spot.

"The Jallianwala Bagh massacre was one

of the most tragic incidents in Indian history,

so the place is certainly very important in

context of the nation's independence. It is

very heart-wrenching to see the bullet marks

and makes us realise the sacrifices behind the

freedom we have today," Hema Upadhyay, a

tourist, said. It is hard to think how, from a

lane, where even three people can't walk side

by side comfortably, one man managed to

perpetrate a massacre, leaving a reported 379

dead, and over 1,100 injured.

For several youngsters, the site takes them

back to their history books, but the experi-

ence of seeing the bullet marks and "the

well" in which several people jumped to their

death to escape bullets, is all together differ-

ent. The bullet marks are clearly visible as

they have been highlighted on the walls, and

the 'Martyrs' Well' is covered by a steel net.

"It's something we have been reading about

in our history textbooks since childhood.

Going there is truly an overwhelming experi-

ence. It makes us realise what people had to

go through to get us independence," said a

college student named Ritika.

Neeta Sharma, a housewife, says once you

enter the Jallianwala Bagh, "you automati-

cally go back into the history and start imag-

ining what the atmosphere would have been

like on that fateful day."

According to an administration source at

the Jallianwala Bagh, most tourists come

here during the weekends or on holidays.

"You can say if 100,000 people come to

Golden Temple, double the people come to

see the Jallianwala Bagh," the source said

when asked about the general crowd at the

spot at any given point of time.

"A lot of tourists come from Maharashtra

and down south. Many choose to first visit

the Golden Temple and then they come to the

Bagh, roam around, rest and also learn about

the history. The people are still eager to

know what happened here exactly," added

the source.

Freedom acquiring newmeaning for thinking IndiaNew Delhi: Freedom as an idea is no

longer what it was 65 years ago when

India emerged from the shackles of British

domination at the stroke of midnight Aug

15, 1947. Today, it is an exercise in intro-

spection on how much ground we have

been able to cover towards being a sus-

tainable, sovereign, fair, thinking and

developed nation, as envisaged in the

manifesto of a free India.

It is a not a question of freedom move-

ment any more; it is how people manage

their own affairs, says freedom fighter

Rameshwar Dayal. "For the first few

years, it was well, particularly during

emergency when everything was on time.

Deterioration set in soon after emer-

gency," Dayal said.

The freedom fighter spent six months in

jail - three months in Delhi and three in

Lahore - in 1942 for taking part in the

protest march in the capital, when he was

a student of Class VII at a gurukul.

Dayal advocates "reforms from top-

down". "The crusade against corruption is

right, but you cannot clash with the gov-

ernment. The solution has to come about

with dialogue. Corrupt officials have to be

given a time-frame to reform or should be

dismissed. Action should be instant. The

good aspects of emergency have to be

adopted once more," he said.

Writer and language activist Namita

Gokhale says "India is a republic of

ideas". "In a diverse and plural society like

ours, real independence comes from co-

dependence and the ability to respect and

accommodate differing points of view,"

Gokhale said.

Younger Indians like 30-year-old entre-

preneur and gallerist Anubhav Nath, the

brain behind the Tihar Art Project, say

post-2000, the opening of opportunities in

the country has been phenomenal. "This is

like a phoenix. What we are seeing right

now is tomorrow's history being made

today," Nath said.

"The country is maturing at 65, becom-

ing a senior citizen. The people of this

country are astute. The corruption crusade

is good but the people involved in it have

vested interest. We need freedom from

both," Nath said.

Freedom for professor Simi Malhotra of

Jamia Millia Islamia is "basically about an

important historical and symbolic signpost

in our lives". "We need to move beyond

this symbolism of freedom and translate it

in our everyday lives and see to it that it

extends to the margins of the society,"

Malhotra said.

Malhotra said the "principally and prac-

tically all players in the society have a big

role to play in making the government

accountable".


Happy Independence Day India!The world welcomes India's amazing new President, Hon. Pranab Mukherjee....

14June 30-July 6, 2012

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

Chief Guest Mr TV Mohandas Pai, who will lead a workshop on philanthropy, and others who will present workshops

at the Konkani Sammelan.

Creative Writing WorkshopShobhan BantwalAward Winning Author

Shobhan Bantwal is an award-winningauthor of six published novels, includ-

ing 'The Full Moon Bride' and 'TheUnexpected Son'. She is also a freelancewriter featured in publications such asThe Writer Magazine, India Abroad, India

Currents and New Woman India. Herbooks deal with social-moral issues andoffer a peek into a side of Indian culturethat has rarely been dealt with in fictionbooks. Two of her short stories won hon-ors in national fiction contests sponsoredby Writer’s Digest and New York Storiesmagazines. She has written plays for pre-vious Konkani Sammelans. She works asa Supervisor at NJ Dept of Labor.

Konkani SamskaraRaghuchandra BhatFounder Puja123.com

Raghuchandra Bhat was born in a fam-ily of priests. They are the hereditary

priests for the Laxmi Venkatesh temple inGerosoppa (Karnataka).

In 1975 he joined a vedic school namedShri Shrinivas Nigamagama Patshala,Mangalore managed by Samsthan KashiMath, Varanasi. There, he was exposed tothe (partially Krishna Yajurveda) ancientGurukula system. After graduation in1978, he came to Mumbai, where he start-ed his consulting practice and conductedpujas, taught Sanskrit, prayers and slokasto children.

In 1999, he conducted the installationceremony of Hanuman, Ganesha and also

S h i k a rPrathistapana atBadarikashrama’sIndia center inMadihalli. In2000, he wasinvited to joinBadarikashramain California astheir full time priest, serving the Bay areacommunity.

In 2001, he joined the Hindu temple ofWisconsin, Pewaukee as its founderpriest. He helped install all the deitiesand worked on building a large devoteebase. He left in 2006, to found his inde-pendent consulting practice puja123.com.

Raghuchandra Bhat is proficient inHindi, English, Marathi, Kannada &Konkani languages.

HinduismSwami ShantanandaChinmaya Mission Tri-State Center,Cranbury, NJ

Swami Shantananda is a senior discipleof Swami Chinmayananda. He com-

pleted his spiritu-al studies atS a n d e e p a n ySadhanalaya inMumbai (1978),and then spenttwo years inretreat in theHimalayas.

Mesmerized byPujya Gurudev,

Swami Shantananda (then Br. Raghavan),went to serve the Master for almost two

years as his traveling secretary. Aftercompleting his Vedanta course inMumbai, Swamiji traveled to Taiwanwhere he successfully managed his ownbusiness while teaching Vedanta part-time.

He has been instrumental in building theChinmaya Mission in Hong Kong, Taiwanand other parts of the world. Since 1992,when he was given Sannyas by Gurudev,Swamiji has dedicated his life to the full-time teaching of Vedanta in thePennsylvania, New Jersey, New Yorkarea. Swami Shantananda is an eruditescholar and gifted speaker. His indefatiga-ble energy and razor-sharp intellect arecoupled with a modern mind. In 2001,Swamiji undertook and completed 50Geeta Gnana Yagnas all around the worldas his personal tribute to Pujya Gurudev.

Chief GuestT.V. Mohandas Pai Chairperson, Manipal UniversalLearning, Ex-CFO Infosys

T.V. Mohandas Pai is the Chairperson ofManipal Universal Learning, a global

educational services corporation & advisorto the Manipal Education & Medical Group.

Mr Pai received a B.Com from St Joseph'sCollege in Bangalore and a law degree from

Bangalore University and is a fellow of theinstitute of chartered accountants. He joinedInfosys in 1994, was elevated as a boardmember in 2000, and served as CFO of

Infosys (1994-2006). He was the mostinfluential, admired and widely emulatedCFO in India. He then became chief ofhuman resources, education & research atInfosys.

He is a member SEBI (Securities andExchange Board of India) and served invarious capacities in financial institutions.

He conceived and operationalizedAkshaya Patra Foundation in 2000, whichwas designed as a mid-day meal programfor school going children. Today it feeds1.2 million each day in 8,000 governmentschools across 9 Indian states with Rs.100crores revenue each year.

Mr Pai has made personal contributions toenhance the educational infrastructure atseveral government schools and educational

institutions. His generous donations enabledthe establishment of many computer labs inseveral educational institutions across India.He has contributed for the farmers educa-tional program in Karnataka and teacherstraining programs for government schools.He gives an incredible 40 percent of hisincome to social causes and charities eachyear. In some years, he has given his entiresalary (estimated to be Rs. 3.5 crore) tocharity. He says, "I give because you cannotmake an island of prosperity amid rampantpoverty."

He is one of the biggest contributors to theWorld Konkani Center in Mangalore. Afterretiring from Infosys, he has decided todevote his time for furthering education andfor social causes in India.

Workshops on EntrepreneurshipAjit PrabhuCEO of QuEST Global

As the co-founder, CEO& co-chairman, Ajit

Prabhu provides the visionand strategic direction forQuEST Global. QuESTwas founded in 1997 todevelop expertise in theengineering services out-

sourcing space.Ajit is a Six Sigma

Greenbelt certificate hold-

er. He gained practicalexperience at GE’sCorporate R&D Center, inSchenectady, NY, whileworking on power genera-tion, aircraft engines,appliances and locomotiverelated engineering prob-lems.

He is a Fellow of theRoyal AeronauticalSociety, UK.

Vinodh (Vin) BhatCo-founder & CEO, Saavn

Vinodh (Vin) Bhat is acofounder and the

CEO of Saavn (South AsianAudio Visual Network), aconsumer media and techcompany, which is thelargest digital rights holder,packager and distributor ofBollywood movies andmusic. Today, Saavnincludes Saavn.com as wellas its Saavn Chrome,Android and iPhone/iOSapplications.

Vin Bhat began his careerat the investment bankDonaldson, Lufkin &Jenrette (DLJ), advising andfinancing media, telecom &

technology companies suchas Voyager, Earthlink,AT&T, @Home andAkamai. He then co-found-ed and served as theDirector, Sales & BusinessDevelopment at Simile, amedia software and servicescompany that advised thebusiness units of TimeWarner, McClatchy, Scrippsand Hearst.

Saavn.com’s content isavailable and programmedin over 19 million TimeWarner, Cox, Rogers,Virgin and other digitalcable homes, on over 30Internet services such asiTunes, Amazon MP3 andRhapsody, and with allmajor wireless carriersincluding Verizon Wireless,

AT&T, and Rogers. In addi-tion, the company reachesover 3M consumers throughits own direct web sitessuch as Saavn.com andSmashits.com, mobileapplications and servicesevery month. Saavn isbased in New York, withoffices in Boulder, CO,Sunnyvale, CA andMumbai, India.

Ranjit DatePresident and JointManaging Director,Precision Automation andRobotics India (PARI)

Dr. Ranjit Date receivedhis Engineering

degree with honors atCollege of Engineering,Pune, and then a Graduate& Doctoral degrees fromRensselaer PolytechnicInstitute, NY. Ranjit was,in 1991, the youngest per-son to receive a doctoratein this field at RPI.

After earning a doctorate

he returned to India. Hehoped to help automatefactory assembly lines inhis home country. Hiscompany, PrecisionAutomation and RoboticsIndia (PARI), has donethat.

Ranjit is responsible forthe vision, business direc-tion, and mentoring atPARI. He is also responsi-ble for building the PARIbrand and formulatinggrowth strategies.

PARI is amongst thelargest global automationcompanies with over 850+employees and 8 facilities

worldwide. Its solid engi-neering strength enablesPARI to be a complete"Solution Provider", fromconceptualizing, designing,manufacturing, implement-ing and supportingadvanced factory automa-tion systems. More recent-ly it has begun sellingrobots to western manufac-turers like Caterpillar, Fordand Chrysler.

Ranjit is a tennis and golfplayer. He enjoys travelingand sports. He has visitedpast 4 Olympic Games andis looking forward toLondon in 2012.

Thousands thronged Broadway

in Hicksville to witness the first annual parade

celebrating India’s Independence Day

with Bollywood star Grand Marshall Vinod Khanna, Indian Consul

General Prabhu Dayal and Nassau County Executive

Ed Mangano leading the parade..

16I n d i a Day S p e c i a l

Hicksville, NY: The inaugu-ral India Day Parade of Long Island was held in the newest ‘Little India’ Hicksville on Au-gust 11 and attracted an estimat-ed 15,000 people from Indian communities scattered in this upscale suburb of New York.

The parade celebrating In-dia’s 66th Independence Day was led by Bollywood actor Vinod Khanna, Grand Mar-shall, Nassau County Execu-tive Ed Mangano, other elected officials such as Supervisors of Town of Hempstead and of North Hempstead, Kate Mur-ray and Jon Kaiman respec-tively. India was represented by New York Consul General Prabhu Dayal.

There were over a dozen floats, a marching band and many other groups walking down the parade route lined by onlookers. Overall, 100 com-munity organizations of the area participated cutting across religion, politics or region of origin in India, according to the event organizers. The pa-rade started from Patel Broth-ers Plaza, and winded down Broadway – a stretch dotted by Indian owned eateries, stores and offices, some of which of-fered free water, soft drinks for all and even bangles to ladies.

August 18-24, 2012

Indians have this big hearts, Grand Marshall Vinod Khanna seems to be gesticulating.

The enthusiasm of the surging crowdswaving Indian flags, shouting slogans and singing patriotic songs had to beseen to be believed.

The traditional lamp lighting ceremony at the beginning of the parade. (right) Linda Mangano is thrilled waving the Indian tricolor.

By Parveen Choprawith Vikas Girdhar

1st India Day Parade in Long Island creates history

14June 30-July 6, 2012


























































The parade culminated near the Asa Mai Hindu temple where a review stand was erected for digni-taries. Afterwards, music and dance performances entertained the assembled crowds all evening from the stage erected in the nearby parking lot.

Wearing a beige kurta and white dhoti, the tall Vi-nod Khanna cut a dapper figure. In his brief remarks from the review stand, he said, “India has come a long way but still has a long way to go.” He added that nonresident Indians have contributed to India’s progress and should continue to do so.

Since the parade date came within days of the Wisconsin gurdwara shooting, messages to re-move misunderstanding about Sikh identity were very visible, also highlighting their contributions to India’s fight for freedom from the British.

The success of the parade, which will now become an annual calendar event, owes itself to the planning and hard work of conveners includ-ing Bobby Kumar, Animesh Goenka, Harendra Singh, Kamlesh Mehta, Gobind Munjal, Lal Mot-wani, Indu Jaiswal and Mohinder Taneja.

Air India, Patel Brothers and Harry Singh of Bol-la Oil were the main sponsors of the event.

Lauding the organizers’ efforts, said Nitin Vora, Past President of Federation of Indian Associations (FIA-Tristate), “What a gala display of Indian cul-ture at the first India Day Parade organized by all India loving and respecting volunteers from Long Island. I know the tremendous work that goes in or-ganizing this kind of an event.” He was also happy to watch second generation youngsters participat-ing in the cultural programs with enthusiasm.

The weather gods cooperated despite forecast of thundershowers. In fact, sun was too strong for some. Many of the parade’s onlookers were of non-South-Asian descent--some even had beach chairs set up along shadier parts of the route and next to

stores to watch the floats go by. People on the floats sang along loud and proud to

the blaring religious hymns and popular songs. At the beginning of the route (Patel Brothers), free

kulfi and coconut water were being distributed. Small businesses along the parade route seemed especially busy as they gave out material promoting themselves.

Even as the dignitaries were still watching the pass-ing parade from the review stand, the huge stage at the parking lot came to life. National Anthems of India and America were sung with everybody joining in. The audience took great joy in watching DJ Kucha call up the town supervisors and community leaders on stage and teaching them bhangra steps. Meanwhile the food and other stalls were doing brisk business.

Hicksville, in the middle of Long Island and well connected by Long Island Rail Road to Manhattan, some 30 miles away, has become a magnet for Indian families trying to escape the cramped living in nearby Queens and other city areas. This Little India is be-coming big on the map of Indian America.

August 18-24, 2012

Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano, second Grand Marshall besides Khanna, rising to climb on to the stage.

Vinod and Kavita Khanna, Hon. Mangano, and CG Prabhu Dayal are joined by Kate

Murray, Indu Jaiswal and other marchers.Consul General Prabhu Dayal speaking

from the Parade Review Stand.

18

August 18-24, 2012


By Vikas Girdhar

Aday before the first annu-

al India Day Parade in

Hicksville, for which he

was to play the starring role of

Grand Marshall, Bollywood actor

Vinod Khanna addressed organiz-

ers and the media.

Khanna, whom many people

present grew up watching in the

70’s and 80’s Hindi movies,

acknowledged the honor of being

selected as a Grand Marshall for

the parade and appreciated how

America has encouraged the

flourishing of Indian values since

its independence in 1947.

Said Khanna, “Having a parade

like this in America speaks vol-

umes about the Indian communi-

ty over here. I don’t have to say

how well you’ve done or how

proud you have made India. The

most lovely thing that I see in the

Indian community and the chil-

dren here is that you have kept

our culture alive.”

He cited the statistic that

Indians have the highest per capi-

ta income in all of America.

“It’s a great achievement for all

the businesspeople and profes-

sionals. But you have also kept

all the traditions of India alive.

The arts and culture—I see more

kids here performing

Bharatanatyam than in Mumbai.

Celebrating independence is the

most wonderful thing after so

many years of British rule that we

had in India. We have gained

independence and we have come

a long way but there is still a long

way to go. I think one of the

major factors of India suddenly

becoming a world economic

power is because of the NRIs

who have sent so much money

back home.”

Khanna said that India being

mentioned in the same breath as

other economic powers was not

the case even 15-20 years ago.

Many families at the time were

struggling to make ends meet but

nowadays, the job growth and

appeal of making money back in

India is significant.

“Today there is enough oppor-

tunity for youngsters to come and

visit but then also wanting to set-

tle back in India and to continue

to the Indian economy and devel-

opment. I never thought in my

lifetime I would see a time

like this.”

Grand Marshall Vinod Khanna (sitting, third from left) at a meeting with parade organizers and media.

Grand Marshall Vinod Khannalauds NRIs' role in India's progress

India Day Parade Hicksville

After a job well done, parade working committee members letting their hair down.

The lead India Day Parade float: Incredible India indeed inHicksville.

People came to the paradedressed colorfully.

Vinod Khanna, accompanied by Kamlesh Mehta, waving to thecrowd from Review Stand.

Rob Walker, (right) Chief Deputy Executive of Nassau County,made a fleeting appearance.

DJ Kucha (fourth from right) had fun inviting dignitaries andorganizers to the stage.

A citation from New York State was given to Patel Brothers, main parade sponsor.

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20

August 18-24, 2012



PRIDE RIDES RIOT OF COLOR

Patel Brothers was the main sponsor of the parade, and put up their float, which also promoted their Swad brand.

Bolla Oil, another big sponsor of the parade, did not need a float, they paraded their oil tanker.

The Rajasthan Association of North America (RANA) put up their own cultural float. Posing with it on the left is Haridas Kotahwala, RANA President.

Lal Motwani and Jessica Taneja leading the parade followed by theNassau County band as waving Indian and American flags intermingled.

Harry Singh (with the mike) of Bolla Oil brought along his own dholak man.

Indus American Bank had to participate, they have their branch situatedright on Broadway in Hicksville.

Commercial real estate tycoon Darshan S. Bagga put up a float to removemisunderstanding about Sikhs and highlight their role in freedom struggle.

22

August 18-24, 2012



Dance and song performances by a variety of groups continued all evening. Bolly Arts was the most prominent group.

FUN FOOD FIESTA

The swelling crowds enjoyed themselves fully as the entertainment program unspooled.

National Anthems of India and America were sung from the stage, with everybody joining in. Members of the Rotary Jericho Sunrise club posing for a photo.

Stalls carrying food and knick-knacks did brisk business. At the parade starting point, Patel Brothers offered free refreshments

Local officials of Air India, the national airline, manning their stall at the fair that followed the parade.

Queues formed at AW Mobile stall to spin the wheel to win free gifts.

You’d expect free water and soda at a mass Indian event,but a variety store along the parade route on Broadway

also gave away colorful free bangles.

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24

August 18-24, 2012


Nassau County celebratesIndia’s Independence Day

By Vikas Girdhar

Mineola, NY: Commemorating the

66th Independence Day of India,

Nassau County Executive Edward P.

Mangano welcomed prominent com-

munity members, Indian-Americans

and special honorees to the Theodore

Roosevelt Executive and Legislative

Building for a joyous celebration and

flag hoisting on the morning of

August 15. The same night, the

dome of the prestigious building,

seat of the Nassau County, was illu-

minated with the orange, green and

white colors of the Indian flag.

Mangano, assisted by the collec-

tive efforts of the crew of India Day

Parade in Hicskville, Long Island,

and the National Federation of

Indian American Associations

(NFIA), hosted the event. The

bringing in and presentation of the

Indian and American flags in a grand

way was led by Champakbhai

Parikh, who has served that role for

ten consecutive years and also done

the same for ceremonies at the

Ganesh mandir in Flushing and the

Gujarati Samaj. NFAI President Lal

Motwani and Chairman of the

Independence Party of Nassau

County Bobby Kumar, gave both a

historical context to the event and an

appreciation of those who came and

made it possible.

Indu Jaiswal and Kamlesh Mehta,

Director of Business and Economic

Development in the county and a

founder of the India Day Parade in

Long Island also addressed the

assembly. Prof. Parveen Chopra pre-

sented the Vote of Thanks and

thanked all major sponsors of the

India Day Parade on August 11.

Those sponsors include Patel

Brothers, Bolla Oil, Bolly Arts, Air

India, MetLife, Kingfisher Airlines,

Antun’s Caterers, BP, Doshi

Diagnostics, Friends of Good

Health, Habib American Bank, Sikh

Organization of New York and The

South Asian Times.

Mangano acknowledged that the

Indian-American community has

played a very important role in the

growth of Nassau County and

America. He said that he is delighted

that the community has been able to

maintain its heritage, culture and tra-

ditions while assimilating with the

culture and life of America.

“Today we celebrate independence

and it’s really a great testament to

Champakbhai Parikh and the group flag march holding tricolors.

Nassau County Executive Honorable Ed Mangano hoisting the flag of India.

Inder Bindra, co-founder ofNargis Dutt Memorial

Foundation, was honored with acitation by Hon. Mangano.Bobby Kumar introduced County Executive Edward P. Mangano

County Executive Edward P. Mangano spoke before the large crowd. Hon. Ed Mangano making an expansive gesture.

25

August 18-24, 2012


your love of India,” said Mangano. “We gather

together on a work day and we are here for the

most important thing that we have in the

United States and that is freedom, independ-

ence and diversity. Jai Hind!”

Mangano was also one of the three Grand

Marshalls this past weekend at the first ever

India Day Parade in Hicksville attract over

12,000 people from all walks of life. The other

two were Bollywood star Vinod Khanna and

Harry Singh of Bolla Oil.

One of the three special honorees during the

event was Inder Bindra, who started an elec-

tronics business known as M&B Appliances

and Odeon Distributers. He also co-founded

the Nargis Dutt Memorial Cancer Foundation

of New York, which continues to pursue its

goal of providing cancer care to every level of

Indian society through non-profit organizations

in India. The second honoree was Dr. Kishore

Kuncham, Superintendent of Freeport Public

Schools, the first Indian-American in New

York State to ever hold that position. Dr.

Kuncham expressed his thanks and acknowl-

edged the important of independence but also

said India needs to focus on working on other

societal factors for a better future.

“We need to eradicate issues such as poverty,

disease, corruption and other things,” said Dr.

Kuncham. “Let’s reflect upon these to create a

better future. I’m very proud to be Indian-

American and standing before you. God bless

America and God bless India.”

The third and final honoree was Dr. Runi

Mukherji-Ratnam, Chair of the Psychology

Department and Director of the General

Education program at SUNY College at Old

Westbury. She is also the President and found-

ing member of the South Asian Council for

Social Services. After the honorees spoke, two

patriotic dance performances were organized

by Bolly Arts, a premier institution preserving

and promoting India culture among the

younger generation of Indian Americans.

The event was emceed by Suchita Chadha,

the National Director for South Asian

Recruiting at MetLife. Breakfast and refresh-

ments were provided by Rajbhog in Hicksville.

All three honorees, organizers and esteemed community members posing for a group picture.

Bolly Arts dancers performed after the speeches.

Bolly Arts’ Sunita Sadhnani (right) and performers posing with Hon. Mangano and Kamlesh Mehta.

The elaborate flag hoisting ceremony wasconducted by Champakbhai Parikh.

Dr. Runi Mukherji-Ratnam, Chair of thePsychology Department and Director of the

General Education program at SUNYCollege at Old Westbury, was also honored.

Dr. Kishore Kuncham, Superintendent ofFreeport Public Schools, was honored.

14June 30-July 6, 2012

























































26

28

August 18-24, 2012


New York: History of sorts was made when for

the first time in 65 years since India gained

freedom, an astronaut – Sunita Williams –

greeted Indians around the world from space.

This event was made possible with meticulous

planning and timely coordination by NASA

authorities between Long Island teen Riti

Sunshine Bhalla and the Indian American astro-

naut.

"Thank you, Riti Sunshine for inviting me to

join in your Indian Independence celebration,"

said Williams, while displaying the tricolor flag

of India on board the International Space

Station. "I wish India a very happy

Independence Day for August 15. India is a

wonderful country and I am very proud to be a

part of India," the astronaut said in her video

message, telecast on 80 national and regional

TV channels in India and watched by over 100

million viewers across the country. She also

gave a guided tour of the Space Station to the

people of India.

“Five years ago, we started an annual TV pro-

gram with the intent to pay homage to the free-

dom fighters who gave up their lives so India

could be free. This year, we are dedicating our

Independence Day Special to Sunita Williams,

who has made a billion people of India so

proud,” said Riti Sunshine, 18, a student of New

York University. Bhalla started her annual

Independence Day program in 2008, when she

was only 13 years old.

The unique celebration of the 65th anniver-

sary of India’s independence in the International

Space Station was the brainchild of Riti

Sunshine and her father Varinder Bhalla, pro-

ducer and director of the program. “The author-

ities at NASA Johnson Space Center were most

helpful in making this event possible,” said an

ecstatic Bhalla. Several American public offi-

cials, appearing as guests on the program, felici-

tated Williams in space and commended her

achievements. “I’m proud to claim her a daugh-

ter of Massachusetts,” said Governor Deval

Patrick. Congressman Steve Israel called

Williams “a perfect example of an Indian

American role model. As an astronaut for

NASA, she has literally gone above and beyond

and I am so proud of her.”

US Senator Bob Menendez remarked, “Today

we also celebrate the contributions of Indian

Americans to this great nation, specifically the

contributions of Astronaut Sunita Williams to

America’s space program.”

Sunita Williams greeted Indians and thanked Riti Bhalla (right) for inviting her to the annual celebration.

“It’s a great honor for me to be on thesame program and share the same air spaceas Sunita Williams,” Shah Rukh Khan told

Riti Sunshine Bhalla.

Dr. Deepak Pandya, father of Sunita Williams, and Massachusetts

Governor Deval Patrick with Riti Bhalla in Boston.

Riti Bhalla made SunitaWilliams’ I Day message

from space possible

30

August 18-24, 2012


The Space OdysseyThis year will go down in India’s history as a milestone one when the nation’s scientific communitytouched the skies with glory, literally. It was in this year that India’s space and missile scientists

made the nation proud with the twin successful launches of its all-weather Radar Imaging Satellite(Risat-1), that can be put to both civilian and military use, and the 5,000-km long-range Agni-V ballistic missile that can reach targets deep inside China’s northern parts and the

whole of Pakistan. Come, be part of the Indian space odyssey mission

From the days of having a

church as control room, the

bishop’s house as office, a

bicycle as ferry, naked eyes to track

the smoke plume at Thumba in

Kerala, and converting a toilet into

a satellite data receiving center in

Bangalore, the Indian space

odyssey has come a long way to

launching lunar probes, working on

a Mars mission and ferrying foreign

satellites into orbit.

Today, India is reckoned as a seri-

ous emerging player in the global

satellite launch and manufacturing

industry and the market leader in

vending images sent by its remote

sensing/earth observation satellites.

Ferrying 27 foreign satellites till

date, ISRO, in August 2012, would

carry an 800 kg French satellite

(the heaviest foreign payload to be

carried by an Indian rocket), signal-

ing the increased confidence in the

space agency’s PSLV rocket. The

space agency has also jointly built

two heavy satellites — the 3,453 kg

W2M and the 2,541 kg Hylas —

for the French agency EADS

Astrium.

On its own, India uses its satel-

lites for civilian (earth observa-

tion/remote sensing, communica-

tion, meteorology) and defense pur-

poses. Recently, the government

told Parliament that communication

satellites for Navy and Air Force

would be launched within a two-

year timeframe.

The high point in India’s space

odyssey was its moon mission in

2008 when it launched

Chandrayaan-1. Chandrayaan-2, a

joint lunar exploration mission with

the Russian Federal Space Agency,

is slated for launch in 2014.

But the achievements that ISRO

started notching up in rocket and

satellite launches since 1990s were

due to the trials and tribulations

that its founding fathers underwent

while laying the building blocks.

Though ISRO has been flying

sounding rockets (experimental

rockets) from Thumba since 1963,

its efforts to launch a rocket with a

heavier payload actually started

with Satellite Launch Vehicle-3

(SLV-3) in 1980.

However, by that time, ISRO had

already built and launched two

satellites —the 358 kg Aryabhatta

and the 444 kg Bhaskara-1.

After Bhaskara-1, the Indian

space agency built the APPLE com-

munication satellite that laid the

ground for the INSAT series satel-

lites possessing multiple capabili-

ties — telecom, television, meteor-

ological and imaging.

However, success started smiling

at ISRO from INSAT-1B onwards

which, according to Rao, ushered in

the communication revolution in

India. There was no looking back

for the space agency on the satellite

side. From one-tonne satellites, the

INSAT series started growing in

weight to become three-tonners and

ISRO later started making satellites

for others.

Scientists at the Vikram Sarabhai

Space Centre (VSSC) in

Thiruvananthapuram during those

times were, however, toiling to get

their rocket right, as the SLV and

Augmented SLV (ASLV) missions

gave mixed results.

The one GSLV rocket fitted with

an indigenous cryogenic engine

failed during a flight. The failure of

a second GSLV rocket in 2010

forced ISRO to apply the brakes on

GSLV — to take a detailed look at

its heavy-rocket program.

India’s journey in missile tech-

nologies has been one roller-coaster

ride, punctuated with efforts at iso-

lating the country from obtaining

critical dual-use technologies for

conducting its only two nuclear

tests in 1974 and 1998.

Effectively, India’s entry into

missile development to provide it a

credible second-strike option and

deterrent to any nuclear adventure

that its adversaries in the neighbor-

hood could attempt happened only

in 1983 when Dr. A.P.J. Abdul

Kalam was roped in to pioneer the

Integrated Guided Missile

Development Program (IGMDP).

The IGMDP was successfully con-

cluded in 2007.

But it’s first step was the 150-km-

range, single-stage, liquid-pro-

pelled, surface-to-surface Prithvi

missile’s test in February 1988. The

single-stage, solid-fuel 700-900-km

range Agni-I test quickly followed

in May 1989. The Missile

Technology Control Regime

(MTCR) did slow down the Indian

missile program but did not cripple

it in any way. India continued its

march and here we have Agni-V,

with all its three stages powered by

solid propellants, as a “game-

changer” for India.

The march was ably aided by

DRDO’s “consortium approach”

that roped in many of its own labo-

ratories to work on specific tech-

nologies, private industries that

produced components through

technology transfers and universi-

ties that collaborated on projects to

infuse new thinking. The success

story continues.

Travel in Time1962 The Indian National

Committee for Space Research is

set up by Department of Atomic

Energy, and work begins on

building Thumba Equatorial

Rocket Launching Station

(TERLS).

1963 First sounding rocket is

launched.

1965 Space Science and

Technology Center is established

in Thumba, Kerala.

1968: Experimental Satellite

Communication Earth Station is

set up in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

1969 The Indian Space

Research Organization (ISRO) is

formed under Department of

Atomic Energy.

1971 The Satish Dhawan Space

Centre is formed in Sriharikota,

Andhra Pradesh.

1972 Department of Space is

established and ISRO brought

under DOS. ISRO Satellite

Centre is established in Bangalore

and the Space Applications

Centre is formed in Ahmedabad.

1976 First Indian satellite

Aryabhatta launched.

1979 Bhaskara-1, an earth

observation experimental satellite

is launched. First experimental

launch of Satellite Launch

Vehicle (SLV-3) carrying Rohini

satellite. Satellite is not placed in

the orbit.

1980 – Second experimental

launch of SLV-3 with Rohini

satellite. Mission successful.

1981 – First developmental

launch of SLV-3.

1982 Launch of Insat-1A com-

munication satellite by an U.S.

rocket.

1983 Second developmental

flight of SLV-3 places Rohini

satellite in orbit. Insat system is

commissioned with the launch to

Insat-1B satellite.

1984 First Indian astronaut

Rakesh Sharma enters Russian

space station ‘Salyut 7’.

1987 First development launch

of Augmented SLV (ASLV) with

satellite SROSS-1. Mission fails.

1992 First successful launch of

ASLV placing SROSS-C satellite.

Launch of Insat-2A — the first

satellite of the indigenously-built

second generation Insat series,

followed by series 3 and 4.

1996 Third developmental

flight of PSLV with IRS-P3.

1999 PSLV carries foreign pay-

loads (Korean and German satel-

lites), along with ISRO’s satellite

‘Oceansat’.

2001 Successful launch of

heavy rocket Geosynchronous

Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV)

with GSAT-1 satellite.

2004 Launch of Edusat by

GSLV’s first operational flight.

2005 Second launch pad at

Sriharikota. Launch of Cartosat-1,

Hamsat by PSLV.

2007 Launch of Cartosat-2 with

Space Capsule Recovery

Experiment and two foreign satel-

lites and successful recovery of

the space capsule.

2008 Launch of Israeli satellite

Tecsar by PSLV. Launch of 10

satellites by a single PSLV — two

Indian and eight foreign. India’s

first moon mission Chandrayaan-

1 by PSLV is planned.

2009 Launch of Radar Imaging

Satellite (Risat-2) and Anusat

from Anna University (first satel-

lite from an Indian University) by

PSLV.

2010 Failure of two GSLV mis-

sions. Launch of Cartosat-2B,

STUDSAT and three small for-

eign satellites by PSLV.

2011 Launch of Resourcesat-2

and two small satellites by PSLV.

Launch of GSAT-12 by PSLV.

Launch of Megha Tropiques and

three small satellites by PSLV.

2012 Launch of Risat-1 by

PSLV.

32

August 18-24, 2012


India’s Unique Identification (UID)

project, touted as the world’s biggest

social project, is still years from com-

pletion but is certainly regarded as the

mother of all government projects. So

massive is the project's scale that many

around the world are watching closely to

see whether it can meet its objectives.

Aadhaar (which means foundation), a

public scheme similar to social security

number in the US, was launched by

Nandan Nilekani, a software billionaire of

Infosys fame. He intends to create a

national biometric database ten times larg-

er than the world’s next-largest biometric

database. The aim is to bridge the gap

between the extraordinary economic dis-

tances between those who have benefited

from India’s boom of the past two decades

and those who have not.

Under the scheme, Unique Identification

Authority of India (UIDAI) captures bio-

metric details (fingerprints, photo and iris)

of 1.2 billion people. With the information

gathered, the government hopes to issue a

unique 12-digit Aadhaar ID number to

every man, woman, and child. If success-

ful, India will build a major new piece of

technological infrastructure for a modern

economy, while fundamentally transform-

ing the way residents interact with their

government.

Currently, each governmental depart-

ment works in isolation, maintaining its

own separate databases and records. Over

time, systematic corruption and misman-

agement have populated these databases

with fraudulent information. The Indian

departments handling social support pro-

grams are often the most abused.

The root cause to uneven distribution is

the lack of most basic verifiable identity

documents. Hundreds of millions of

Indians are virtually invisible to the state.

They have no ID. They may have ration

cards or election cards but no real identifi-

cation.

Many see Aadhaar as a potential game-

changer in India, bringing the country's

poorest citizens into the mainstream,

reducing waste while ensuring federal

welfare money reaches those who need it

most. If handled right it could change the

face of India.

However skeptics see a threat of state

intrusions, or detect patriotic vanity. There

are concerns over its cost, discrepancies in

data collection, implications for national

security and fears that the data could be

misused. There are questions on who will

have the access to the data?

Proponents of the project argue that it

will lead to a fairer and more equitable

distribution of public benefits by stream-

lining the Public Distribution System and

plugging leakages in it. The proponents

also believe that Aadhaar will open doors

for financial services especially in rural

areas.

If the government is able to implement

the Aadhaar scheme, India will jump two

steps ahead from no ID to online ID.

Update

� Since its launch in 2010, nearly 200million UIDs have been generated. The

goal is to cover half the population by

2014.� The second phase of the Aadhaar

project is beginning.� Delhi government officials have

detected a large number of fraudulent

enrolments in the first phase of Aadhaar

that ended in February after registering

1.3 crore people in the city.� India’s Market regulator Securities

and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)

allows Aadhaar as valid address proof for

investors.� The UID has also tied up with state-

owned banks to enable migrant workers to

transfer money from the cities to their

families in the villages, using their UID

numbers.

Iris scan and fingerprints capture: India is going from no ID to online ID.

Inclusive India: creating a billion

identities

The Indian economic policy after

independence was influenced

by the colonial experience,

which was seen by Indian leaders as

exploitative, and by those leaders'

exposure to British social democracy

as well as the progress achieved by the

planned economy of the Soviet Union.

Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime

minister of India, along with the statis-

tician Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis,

formulated and oversaw economic

policy during the initial years of the

country's existence.

They expected favorable outcomes

from their strategy, involving the rapid

development of heavy industry by

both public and private sectors, and

based on direct and indirect state inter-

vention, rather than the more extreme

Soviet-style central command system.

The rate of growth of the Indian

economy in the first three decades

after independence was derisively

referred to as the Hindu rate of growth

by economists, because of the

unfavourable comparison with growth

rates in other Asian countries.

Since 1965, the use of high-yielding

varieties of seeds, increased fertilizers

and improved irrigation facilities con-

tributed to the 'Green Revolution' in

India, which improved the condition

of agriculture by increasing crop pro-

ductivity, improving crop patterns and

strengthening forward and backward

linkages between agriculture and

industry.

However, it has also been criticized

as an unsustainable effort, resulting in

the growth of capitalistic farming,

ignoring institutional reforms and

widening income disparities.

Subsequently, the Emergency and

Garibi Hatao concept by which the

income tax levels at one point raised to

a maximum of 97.5%, a record in the

world for non-communist economies,

started diluting the earlier efforts.

In the late 1970s, the government led

by Morarji Desai eased restrictions on

capacity expansion for incumbent

companies, removed price controls,

reduced corporate taxes and promoted

the creation of small scale industries in

large numbers. However, the subse-

quent government policy of Fabian

socialism hampered the benefits of the

economy, leading to high fiscal

deficits and a worsening current

account.

The collapse of the Soviet Union,

which was India's major trading part-

ner, and the Gulf War, which caused a

spike in oil prices, resulted in a major

balance-of-payments crisis for India,

which found itself facing the prospect

of defaulting on its loans.

India asked for a $1.8 billion bailout

loan from the International Monetary

Fund (IMF), which in return demand-

ed reforms. In response, Prime

Minister Narasimha Rao, along with

his finance minister Manmohan Singh,

initiated the economic liberalization of

1991. The reforms did away with the

Licence Raj, reduced tariffs and inter-

est rates and ended many public

monopolies, allowing automatic

approval of foreign direct investment

in many sectors.

India had progressed towards a free-

market economy, with a substantial

reduction in state control of the econo-

my and increased financial liberaliza-

tion.

This has been accompanied by

increases in life expectancy, literacy

rates and food security, although urban

residents have benefited more than

agricultural residents.

India's agricultural economy is

undergoing structural changes.

Between 1970 and 2011, the GDP

share of agriculture has fallen from 43

to 16 percent. This isn't because of

reduced importance of agriculture, or a

consequence of agricultural policy.

This is largely because of the rapid

economic growth in services, industri-

al output, and non-agricultural sectors

in India between 2000 to 2010.

India achieving: The elephant isn't tired yet

Goldman Sachs predicted that India's GDP in current prices would overtake that ofFrance and Italy by 2020, Germany, UK and Russia by 2025 and Japan by 2035,

making it the third largest economy of the world, behind the US and China.

34

August 18-24, 2012


Poised to become a US$ 225 billion

industry by 2020, the Indian infor-

mation technology (IT) industry has

played a key role in putting India on the

global map. The IT-BPO sector has

become one of the most significant growth

catalysts for the Indian economy. In addi-

tion to fuelling India’s economy, this

industry is also positively influencing the

lives of its people through an active direct

and indirect contribution to various socio-

economic parameters such as employ-

ment, standard of living and diversity. The

industry has played a significant role in

transforming India’s image from a slow

moving bureaucratic economy to a land of

innovative entrepreneurs and a global

player in providing world class technolo-

gy solutions and business services,

according to National Association of

Software and Service Companies (NASS-

COM).

The workforce in Indian IT industry will

touch 30 million by 2020 and this sunrise

industry is expected to continue its mam-

moth growth, expect various industry

experts.

Furthermore, NASSCOM said that the

domestic IT-BPO revenues excluding

hardware are expected to have grown at

almost 16 per cent to reach US$ 17.35 bil-

lion in FY2011. Strong economic growth,

rapid advancement in technology infra-

structure, increasingly competitive Indian

organizations, enhanced focus by the gov-

ernment and emergence of business mod-

els that help provide IT to new customer

segments are the key drivers for increased

technology adoption in India.

India will see its number of internet

users triple to 237 million by 2015, from

81 million registered in September 2010,

according to a report titled 'Internet's New

bn', by the Boston Consulting Group

(BCG). BCG said Internet penetration rate

in India is expected to reach 19 per cent

by 2015, up from the current seven per

cent.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India

(TRAI) is targeting a 10-fold increase in

broadband subscribers to 100 million by

2014. The country has 10.29 million sub-

scribers now. "We will have 100 million

broadband subscribers by 2014," J.S.

Sarma, Chairman, TRAI said.

The Growth Story

India is a preferred destination for com-

panies looking to offshore their IT and

back-office functions. It also retains its

low-cost advantage and is a financially

attractive location when viewed in combi-

nation with the business environment it

offers and the availability of skilled peo-

ple.

In 2010, the domestic BPO market was

worth US$ 1.1 billion. The firm predicts

that the domestic BPO market would

reach US$ 1.69 billion in 2012 and

increase to US$ 2.47 billion by 2014.

Road Ahead

The Indian information technology sec-

tor continues to be one of the sunshine

sectors of the Indian economy showing

rapid growth and promise.

According to a report prepared by

McKinsey for NASSCOM called

'Perspective 2020: Transform Business,

Transform India', the exports component

of the Indian industry is expected to reach

US$ 175 billion in revenue by 2020. The

domestic component will contribute US$

50 billion in revenue by 2020. Together,

the export and domestic markets are likely

to bring in US$ 225 billion in revenue, as

new opportunities emerge in areas such as

public sector and healthcare and as geog-

raphies including Brazil, Russia, China

and Japan opt for greater outsourcing.

InformationTechnology – India’s

sunshine sector

The Indian biotechnology sector is one

of the fastest growing knowledge-

based sectors in India and is expected

to play a key role in shaping India's rapidly

developing economy. With numerous com-

parative advantages in terms of research and

development (R&D) facilities, knowledge,

skills and cost effectiveness, the biotechnol-

ogy industry in India has immense potential

to emerge as a global key player.

The Indian biotech industry grew threefold

in five years to report revenues of US$ 3 bil-

lion during 2009-11, a rise of 17 per cent

over the previous year, according to the

eighth annual survey conducted by the

Association of Biotechnology-Led

Enterprises (ABLE) and a monthly journal,

BioSpectrum.

India has many assets in its strong pool of

scientists and engineers, vast institutional

network, and cost effective manufacturing.

There are over a hundred national research

laboratories employing thousands of scien-

tists. There are more than 300 college level

educational and training institutes across the

country offering degrees and diplomas in

biotechnology, bio-informatics and the bio-

logical sciences, producing nearly 500,000

students on an annual basis.

India is recognized as a mega bio-diversity

country. Biotechnology in India offers

opportunities to convert the biological

resources into economic wealth and employ-

ment opportunities. Innovative products and

services that draw on renewable resources

bring greater efficiency into industrial

processes, check environmental degradation

and deliver a more bio-based economy.

In fact, India has been ranked among the

top 12 biotech destinations worldwide and

third largest in the Asia-Pacific region.

Key segments in the Indian biotechnology

industry:

Bio-pharma

Bio-services

Bio-agri

Bio-industrial

Bio-informatics

Market Size

The biopharma sector contributed nearly

three-fifth to the total industry's revenues at

US$ 1.9 billion, a rise of 12 per cent, fol-

lowed by bioservices at US$ 573 million and

bioagri at US$ 420.4 million. The remaining

revenue came from the bioindustrials and

bioinformatics segments, US$ 122.5 million

and US$ 50.2 million, respectively.

Biopharma and bioservices sectors con-

tributed 63 per cent and 33 per cent, respec-

tively, to the total biotech exports. The bioa-

griculture, bioindustrials and bioinformatics

sectors remained focused on domestic opera-

tions, bringing in nearly 90 per cent of their

revenues from India. While the industry,

spanning bio-pharma and agri-biotech,

accounted for US$ 3 billion, the equipment

and ancillary segment contributed around

US$ 1 billion.

Biofuels would also offer a huge growth

opportunity in biotech, according to Kiran

Mazumdar Shaw, Chairman and Managing

Director, Biocon.

Investments

Investments, along with outsourcing activ-

ities and exports, are key drivers for growth

in the biotech sector.

FDI up to 100 per cent is permitted

through the automatic route for manufactur-

ers of drugs and pharmaceuticals.

According to data released by the

Department of Industrial Policy and

Promotion (DIPP), the drugs and pharma-

ceuticals sector has attracted foreign direct

investment (FDI) worth Rs 42,745.26 crore

(US$ 7.61 billion) between April 2000 and

January 2012.

Road Ahead

India is already being globally recognised

as a manufacturer of economical, high-quali-

ty bulk drugs and formulations. With a huge

base of talented, skilled and cost-competitive

manpower, and a well developed scientific

infrastructure, India has great potential to

become a leading global player in biotech-

nology.

Protein and antibody production and the

fabrication of diagnostic protein chips are a

promising area for investment. Stem cell

research, cell engineering and cell-based

therapeutics is another area, wherein India

will cash in its expertise.

India has the potential to become a major

producer of transgenic rice and several

genetically modified (GM) or engineered

vegetables. Hybrid seeds, including GM

seeds, represent new business opportunities

in India based on yield improvement.

The country offers a suitable population

for clinical trials because of its diverse gene

pools, which cover a large number of dis-

eases. Cost effectiveness, competition, and

increased confidence on capabilities and

skill sets have propelled many global phar-

maceutical companies to expand their own

clinical research investment in the nation.

Some other potential areas of development

include medicinal and aromatic plants, ani-

mal biotechnology, aquaculture and marine

biotechnology, seri biotechnology, stem cell

biology, environmental biotechnology, bio-

fuels, biopesticides, human genetics, genome

analysis, and others.

Biotechnology sector - India emerges

key global player

36

August 18-24, 2012


By Hardeep Singh Puri

Iam bullish about India. I gen-

uinely believe that as the

world’s largest democracy,

our future and its trajectory will

be moving ahead positively, not

only because we will slowly but

surely become the world’s second

largest economy but also because

we are a country which has suc-

cessfully transformed from a

colonial economy of 190 years.

We have a good story to tell. We

have transformed into a vibrant

secular economy which, in terms

of mainstream global values, has

a lot to put on the table.

Sometimes last year, a former

Prime Minister of an ASEAN

country said at the Hindustan

Times conclave in Delhi that

India could grow faster and be

like China only if it was a little

less democratic. Now, I am not

aware that democracy and eco-

nomic growth are commodities

that you choose from. So, any

theme on India as the next fron-

tier will have to start with the

acknowledgement that India is a

democracy, and will always con-

tinue to be a democracy, even if it

means a few percentage points of

GDP growth less.

I am quite bullish on this.

There is a banker who wrote an

article recently that basically you

have a choice of growing between

7 to 10% a year. If you get all the

public policy choices right, in

other words, if you get the gover-

nance right, you will grow at 10%

and if we botch up all the gover-

nance decisions, we will still

grow at 7%. Now, to me, I think

the strength of our democracy is

such that we have no option but

to also get the governance right.

Let me explain why I say that.

Point one – in India, given our

democratic politics, you cannot

decouple democracy from the

nature of coalition politics we

have. There is no point pretend-

ing that we can go down any

other road. The choice is not

between public policy decisions,

which make for social inclusive

growth and the free play of mar-

ket forces. That is not a choice.

We will have to go down the path

of inclusive growth, because

unless we can carry all segments

of our population with us, the

process of economic growth and

democracy on which it is cen-

tered, will not be able to deliver

the outcomes that we are seeking.

Where are we headed? I have

absolutely no doubt that we will

grow at 7 ½% to 8% at the very

least, in the coming few years,

starting immediately in 2012-

2013. Why is there so much

gloom? You would have seen an

article in The Economist, which

talks about the fading of the

Indian magic. There is some con-

cern which I found resonating,

when I was addressing some

investment bankers in Manhattan,

anxiety that we may lapse back

into what is called the Hindu rate

of growth. Why is there this anx-

iety, because in the last quarter,

quarter on quarter growth was

only 6.1%. For the simple rea-

son: between 2010-2011, the

Reserve Bank of India raised

interest rates on 13 consecutive

occasions, which led to a squeeze,

and now that process is being

reversed. So I have no doubt that

all this anxiety about a relapse

into Hindu rate of growth is mis-

placed. We already have state-

ments from the Finance Minister

saying that we are going to be

taking some tough decisions.

What are the kind of reforms

we need? Clearly, not the

reforms that foreign investors in

India keep clamouring for, which

are the short-term decisions

which they find lucrative from the

point of view of maximizing

returns on their investments. The

reforms which we need are those

which will make for longer term

sustainable growth in India.

What do I have in mind? These

are issues such as of our raising

agricultural productivity, better

targeting of subsidies, making

projects in infrastructure viable

etc. We will have to continue with

a programme of subsidisation but

will have to ensure those subsi-

dies are targeted.

They have to reach and serve

the purpose for which they are

instituted, not to result in wasteful

expenditure.

Why I am bullish about IndiaExcerpted from the speech Ambassador Hardeep Singh Puri,

Permanent Representative of India to the UN in New York, gave at ‘India: The Next Frontier’ conference in March 2012 at the Harvard

John F. Kennedy School of Government, Boston.

14June 30-July 6, 2012

























































Gandhiji fought all his life against ghetto mentalities, against the narrow,

myopic confines of imagined

histories, he sought a cross pollination of minds, the freedom

of democratic debate, the jousting of ideas - never to forget the connec-tivity that ties us with the rest of the human race.

An abridged version of the 29th Annual Mahatma Gandhi

Memorial Lecture given by Indian Ambassador to US Nirupama Rao on June 21, 2012 at

University of California in San Diego


How Gandhi remains relevant in 21st century world

I have reflected considerably on what I should choose as the theme of my talk today. I know that the thoughts and values expressed with

boundless truth and conviction by Gandhiji are well known to a vast cross-section of thinking humanity today. In the troubled world we live in, where we are constantly searching for answers to the challenges that face so many regions, the talisman of non-violent action, and the passion-ate advocacy of inclusiveness, tolerance, cultural sensitivity, respect for diversity, and the under-standing of the multiple identities that constitute each and every one of us today, all Gandhian val-ues, are precious legacies which we must con-stantly uphold. I know the impact that Gandhiji had on lives here in America too.

I thought I should highlight a few points rel-evant to contemporary life in my talk today. All of them draw their inspiration from Gandhiji. The first is awareness, which I see as ridding oneself, of what Rabindranath Tagore called “the sheath of self” and to realize the infinite reserves of goodness and compassion that ex-ist within the human mind. It is understanding the strength of the spiritual reserves within us that instinctively make us bond with our fellow human beings. When we see the divisions and frontiers that divide humanity today, we must understand that the power to overcome them can only come from within ourselves. We often think of our lives as confined within ourselves, tied to our individual existences, and overlook the deeper and higher life in each and every one of us. Gandhiji sought to awaken us to those reserves of inner strength. That message is still relevant for the world of today.

The second point is about connectedness and connectivity and understanding of the meaning of pluralism and diversity. Parochialism and closed mindsets lead us forth into violence and conflict. A decade ago, while delivering the Neelam Tiruchelvam Memorial Lecture in Co-lombo, Sri Lanka, the celebrated writer Ami-tav Ghosh talked of creating an “archipelago of hope” with sanctuaries that remain “stub-bornly open to the flow of opinions, stubborn-ly hospitable to imagined enemies, stubbornly resistant to the floodwaters that seek to grind all forms of life into uniform grains of sand”. Gandhiji fought all his life against ghetto men-talities, against the narrow, myopic confines of imagined histories, he sought a cross pollina-tion of minds, the freedom of democratic de-bate, the jousting of ideas - never to forget the connectivity that ties us with the rest of the human race. Our survival can only rest on the recognition of that connectivity, a recognition, as Edward Said once said, “of the other echoes that inhabit the garden”.

The third point is communication: and com-munication, as Gandhiji willed it, has to rest on openness, transparency, and truth. It has to rest on education. It must involve the imagina-tive use of technology, including social media, as we saw being used by young Egyptian blog-gers during the Arab Spring. We share, as hu-mans, the fundamental urge to learn and share (communicate) and prosper. We live today in a world of Internet search engines and col-laborative systems of knowledge like Wikipe-dia. Gandhiji was certainly an activist for free knowledge. He reached across geographical and political frontiers in an instantly appealing and comprehensible way: in the manner of all great communicators, as a votary for develop-ment, as a practitioner of peace.

The fourth point is about synergy and cooper-ation. Today, as the world fills with talk about the rise of Asia, and countries like India and China,

Gandhiji would have been a tireless advocate of regional cooperation and the pooling of indi-vidual capabilities for collective progress and advancement of our region, the Asia-Pacific world. He would have been also a passionate supporter of the Nalanda University project, a global institution of higher learning, enabling us to rediscover that pride in our heritage as Asians, and in our soft power and civilizational influence, mixing, as Jeffrey Garten says, “na-tionalities and cultures”. Today, we have very few Asian universities that rank in the world’s list of top educational institutions. Gandhiji would have strongly espoused the idea of an Asian university as a great intellectual center, incubating ideas for common development, and innovative research. Nalanda is such a

project, and its resurrection is of fundamental importance as we craft a future that is full of energy and a sense of direction.

Finally, there is remembrance. And stand-ing here as I do, on Californian soil, among so many of you from the Indian American diaspora, I cannot help but remember that next year, we will mark one hundred years of the launch of the Gadar Movement by the Gadar Babas, a group of almost 8,000 brave and self-less Overseas Indians who set forth from here for India, to help the cause of freedom in our motherland. To remember them is to remem-ber the spirit of sacrifice, the tapasya, as Gu-rudev Tagore calls it, in which they gave up their lives selflessly, fighting the injustice of colonial rule, to safeguard the future of mil-lions of our countrymen. We must not forget them, or the cause of a secular, free, India, for which they fought and laid down their lives.

I would like to conclude by saying that India remembers Gandhiji in myriad ways - as the father of our nation, as the enabler of our free-dom, as the fount of our pride in our identity as a peace loving, nonviolent country and a secu-lar democracy, as a healer of divides, as a per-sonification of truth, strength, faith and cour-age. Our diplomacy in the world also bears the imprint of, and draws inspiration from Gan-dhiji. He is our philosopher, our guide, the “good boatman”, as his grandson Rajmohan Gandhi says, as we connect with the world, ever relevant, evergreen, a 21st century leader for our times. To quote Faiz Ahmed Faiz, he lives, among us, reminding us of our responsi-bilities as human beings on a fragile planet, in what is an “ageless life “.

August 18-24, 2012

A still from Richard Attenborough’s 1982 film ‘Gandhi’ starring Ben Kingsley in title role.

By Nirupama Rao

GOOD BUSINESS STARTS WITH A GREAT CONVENTION

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42

August 18-24, 2012


American author Mark

Twain once said, “India is

the cradle of the human

race, the birthplace of human

speech, the mother of history, the

grandmother of legend, and the

great grandmother of tradition.

Our most valuable and most con-

structive materials in the history of

man are treasured up in India

only.”

In her book ‘Portraits of a

Nation: History of Ancient India’,

Kamlesh Kapur, a renowned edu-

cator and scholar based in the US,

states that India was to pan-Asia

what Greece was to Europe, the

mother of civilization.

In an earlier era, India was

responsible for many architectural

marvels, scientific wonders, edu-

cational systems, progress in

astronomy, and contributions to

the world culture, which led to the

progress of mankind.

Science and mathematics

Mathematics in India has a very

long and hallowed history. Ganit

(Mathematics) has been consid-

ered a important subject since

ancient times.

Concepts of zero and infinity

were born here. The earliest writ-

ten reference of zero (Sanskrit

word for zero is Shunya) is found

in the ancient Sanskrit texts and

explained by Pingala in his

Chhandah Sutra of the second cen-

tury. Algebra and calculus also

originated here. Quadratic equa-

tions were by Sridharacharya in

the 11th Century. T he value of pi

was first calculated by Budhayana,

and he explained what is now

known as the Pythagorean

Theorem. Recently British schol-

ars officially published that

Budhayana's works dates to the 6th

Century which is long before the

European mathematicians. The

largest numbers the Greeks and the

Romans used were 106 whereas

Indians used numbers as big as

1053.

Atomism

Historically, the earliest refer-

ences found to the concept of

atoms were in ancient India in the

6th century BC. Ancient Indian

(Hindu) texts abundantly talk

about the concept of "anu" and

"parmaanu" (Sanskrit words for

molecules and atoms respectively)

and how energy resides within

each and every atom of the uni-

verse. References to atoms in the

West emerged about a century

later.

Astronomy

The earliest references to astron-

omy are found in the Rig Veda,

which are dated 2000 BC. The cal-

culation of occurrences of eclipses,

determining that sun was a star and

determination of number of planets

under our solar system.

In some instances, astronomical

principles were borrowed to

explain matters pertaining to

astrology, like casting of a horo-

scope. Apart from this linkage of

astronomy with astrology in

ancient India, science of astrono-

my continued to develop inde-

pendently, and culminated into

many original findings.

The decimal system in

Harappa

The famous French mathemati-

cian, Laplace, said, “The ingenious

method of expressing every possi-

ble number using a set of ten sym-

bols (each symbol having a place

value and an absolute value)

emerged in India.” In India a deci-

mal system was already in place

during the Harappan period as

indicated by an analysis of the

Harappan weights and measures.

What we use as the modern deci-

mal system was compiled in its

entirety in India, even though other

cultures had introduced some fea-

tures of the numeric system

beforehand.

General education system

The education system in ancient

India comprised Gurukuls, which

literally meant teacher’s family.

India was one of the few countries

where knowledge was system-

atized and where provision was

made for its imparting at the high-

est level in remote times.

Whatever the discipline of learn-

ing, whether it was chemistry,

medicine, surgery, the art of paint-

ing or sculpture, or dramatics or

principles of literary criticism or

mechanics or even dancing, every-

thing was reduced to a systematic

whole for passing it on to the

future generations in a brief and

yet detailed manner. University

education on almost modern lines

existed in India as early as 800

B.C. or even earlier. The learning

or culture of ancient India was

chiefly the product of her her-

mitages in the solitude of the

forests. Indian civilization in its

early stages had been mainly a

rural, sylvan civilization.

Universities

The world's first University was

established in Takshila in 700 BC.

More than 10,500 students from all

over the world studied more than

60 subjects. The University of

Nalanda built in 4th century BC

was one of the greatest achieve-

ments of ancient India in educa-

tion. Started by Kumar Gupta in

5th and 6thcentury, Nalanda – one

of the largest at that time –flour-

ished for almost 800 years from

500-1300 A.D. It was situated in

the modern day state of Bihar.

Students from foreign lands such

as Tibet, China, Japan, Korea,

Sumatra, Java and Sri Lanka came

for higher learning.

Language and Literature

Sanskrit, a historical Indo-Aryan

language, is the oldest language in

the world. Scholars like Voltaire

and Kant believed that Sanskrit

was the root of all Indo-European

languages. Sanskrit and related

languages have also influenced

their Sino-Tibetan-speaking neigh-

bors to the north through the

spread of Buddhist texts.

Vedas- later compiled and writ-

ten by Veda Vyasa- are the oldest

and the longest texts of mankind.

Post Vedic literature is vast and

varied – the epics Ramayana,

Mahabharata and of curse

Bhaagvad Gita, etc.

Medicine and health

India is known for its oldest

medicine system- Ayurveda.

However not many know about

India’s contributions to modern

medicine and surgery. Sushruta, a

medical scholar and practitioner,

lived 2000 years ago, in the

ancient Indian city of Kasi, now

called Varanasi. His work is com-

piled in a collection called

‘Sushruta Samahita’ in which he

describes over 120 surgical instru-

ments, 300 surgical procedures

and classifies human surgery in 8

categories.

Sushruta is also referred to as the

father of plastic surgery and cos-

metic surgery since his technique

of forehead flap rhinoplasty

(repairing the disfigured nose with

a flap of skin from the forehead).

Ayurveda means knowledge for

long life. In its broader perspec-

tive, it is a philosophy, which deals

with the quality of life. Despite the

advent of allopath medicine,

Ayurveda has its own system of

medicine and over the years,

Ayurvedic spas have hugely

become popular. People from

many western countries including

USA have adopted / altered their

lifestyles according to the princi-

ples of Ayurveda.

Yoga

Yoga, a primeval Indian art, is

meant for the enlightenment of

spiritual intelligence and achieve-

ment of physical fitness. Rooted in

the ‘Patanjali’s Yoga Shastra’,

Yoga aims to bring a ‘union or

merger’ of one’s soul and body for

perfect repose, peace and self-

enlightenment. Based on the meta-

physical thinking of Indian culture,

yoga has travelled to the west and

has become a rage in US and UK.

Technology

Metallic artifacts discovered in

the Indus-Sarasvati region and the

north plains of India prove that

metallurgy was in an advanced

stage here about seven millennia

back. Steel was an Indian specialty

for centuries. The famous

Damascus steel swords, now found

in museums across Europe, were

made from imported Indian steel.

Ship building and navigation

A panel found in Mohenjodaro

depicts a sailing craft, and thou-

sands of years later Ajanta murals

also depict a sea-faring ship. The

science of shipbuilding and navi-

gation was well known to ancient

Indians. Sanskrit and Pali texts are

replete with maritime references,

and ancient Indians, particularly

from the coastal regions, were hav-

ing commercial relations with sev-

eral countries of across the Bay of

Bengal like Cambodia, Java,

Sumatra, Borneo, and even up to

China.

The art of Navigation was born

in the river Sindh 6000 years ago.

The very word Navigation is

derived from the Sanskrit word

NAVGATIH. The word navy is

also derived from Sanskrit 'Nou'.An artist's impression of an operation being performed by Susruta,

who also developed plastic surgery.

India's urban civilization is traced to Mohenjodaro and Harappa, now in Pakistan, where planned urban

townships existed 5000 years ago.

Nalanda University, the oldest university in the world is beingrestored. Five countries - Japan, China, Singapore, Thailand andIndia - are undertaking the mission of building the new Nalanda.

The Mother of Civilization

44

August 18-24, 2012


India’s real gift to the world is etherealEver since Vedic seers proclaimed, ‘Aham Brahmasmi’ (I am Brahman or the

Absolute), India has oriented its entire existence around the goal of realizing Godwithin, devising various means to achieve it. It is this that will guide humanity’s

future evolution, according to sages ancient and modern. Here is a compilation ofthoughts from wise Indians and Indophiles.

Meditation never died in this

country. Sometimes above

ground, sometimes under-

ground, but its river has remained flow-

ing constantly, eternally. It flows today,

it will flow tomorrow also – and that is

the only hope for man… If this country

has given the world anything, it is only

meditation. Then whether in the form of

Patanjali or in the form of Mahavira or in

the form of Buddha or in the form of

Kabir or in the form of Nanak – names

may have been changing but the contri-

bution has not...

■ Osho

Ibelieve that the civilization India has

evolved is not to be beaten in the

world. Nothing can equal the seeds sown

by our ancestry. Rome went; Greece

shared the same fate; the might of the

Pharaohs was broken; Japan has become

westernized; of China nothing can be

said; but India is still, somehow or other,

sound at the foundation.

■ Mahatma Gandhi

Civilizations have arisen in other

parts of the world. In ancient and

modern times, wonderful ideas have

been carried forward from one race to

another... But mark you, my friends, it

has been always with the blast of war

trumpets and the march of embattled

cohorts. Each idea had to be soaked in a

deluge of blood..... Each word of power

had to be followed by the groans of mil-

lions, by the wails of orphans, by the

tears of widows.

This, many other nations have taught;

but India for thousands of years peace-

fully existed. Here activity prevailed

when even Greece did not exist... Even

earlier, when history has no record, and

tradition dares not peer into the gloom of

that intense past, even from until now,

ideas after ideas have marched out from

her, but every word has been spoken

with a blessing behind it and peace

before it. We, of all nations of the world,

have never been a conquering race, and

that blessing is on our head, and there-

fore we live...!

■ Swami Vivekananda

India has all along been trying experi-

ments in evolving a social unity within

which all the different peoples could be

held together, while fully enjoying the

freedom of maintaining their differences.

The tie has been as loose as possible, yet

as close as circumstances permitted. This

has produced something like a United

States of a social federation, whose com-

mon name is Hinduism.

■ Rabindranath Tagore (Indian poet

& philosopher)

Another important Vedantic concept

is that all human beings, because of

their shared spirituality, are members of

a single family. The Upanishads have an

extraordinary phrase for the human race,

‘Amritasya putrah’ (children of immor-

tality), because we carry within our con-

sciousness the light and the power of the

Brahman regardless of race, color, creed,

sex, caste or nationality. That is the basis

of the concept of human beings as an

extended family — ‘Vasudhaiva kutum-

bakam’.

■ Dr. Karan Singh (Indian diplomat

and politician)

When I read the Bhagavad Gita and

reflect about how God created this

universe, everything else seems so

superfluous.

■ Albert Einstein

If I were asked under what sky the

human mind has most fully developed

some of its choicest gifts, has most

deeply pondered on the greatest prob-

lems of life, and has found solutions, I

should point to India.

■ Max Mueller (German scholar)

After the conversations about Indian

philosophy, some of the ideas of

quantum physics that had seemed so

crazy suddenly made much more sense.

■ Werner Heisenberg (German

physicist)

Mother India is in many ways the

mother of us all. Nothing should

more deeply shame the modern student

than the recency and inadequacy of his

acquaintance with India.... This is the

India that patient scholarship is now

opening up like a new intellectual conti-

nent to that Western mind which only

yesterday thought civilization an exclu-

sive Western thing... Perhaps in return

for conquest, arrogance and spoliation,

India will teach us the tolerance and gen-

tleness of the mature mind, the quiet

content of the unacquisitive soul, the

calm of the understanding spirit, and a

unifying, a pacifying love for all living

things.

■ Will Durant (American philoso-

pher)

It is already becoming clear that a

chapter which had a Western begin-

ning will have to have an Indian ending

if it is not to end in self-destruction of

the human race.

At this supremely dangerous moment

in human history, the only way of salva-

tion is the ancient Hindu way. Here we

have the attitude and spirit that can make

it possible for the human race to grow

together into a single family.

■ Arnold Toynbee (British historian)

It (India) is not only a country and

something geographical, but the home

and the youth of the soul, the everywhere

and nowhere, the oneness of all times.

■ Herman Hesse (German poet and

novelist)

According to me, the influence of

Sanskrit literature on our time will

not be lesser than what was in the 16th

century Greece’s influence on

Renaissance.

One day, India’s wisdom will flow

again on Europe and will totally trans-

form our knowledge and thought.

■ Arthur Schopenhauer (German

philosopher)

The writers of the Indian philosophies

will survive, when the British

dominion in India shall long have ceased

to exist, and when the sources which it

yielded of wealth and power are lost to

remembrances.

■ Lord Warren Hastings (first

Governor General of British India)

We of the Occident are about to

arrive at a crossroads that was

reached by the thinkers of India hun-

dreds of years before Christ.

■ Heinrich Zimmer (German histori-

an & Indologist)

The Hindu genius is a love for

abstraction and, at the same time, a

passion for the concrete image. At times

it is rich, at others prolix. It has created

the most lucid and the most instinctive

art.

It is abstract and realistic, sexual and

intellectual, pedantic and sublime.

It lives between extremes, it embraces

the extremes, rooted in the earth and

drawn to an invisible beyond.

■ Octavio Paz (Mexican Nobel Prize

laureate in Literature)

A depiction of kundalini awakening at the opening ceremony of the Delhi Commonwealth Games last year.

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46

August 18-24, 2012


WHY I LOVE MYINDIA

For some, love has different meanings...By Meenakshi Iyer

In my midlife,

having wit-

nessed --and

remembered-- at

least two decades of

the tricolor being

unfurled from the

minarets of

Lutyens’ Delhi, and

colorful kites enveloping the sky all over

the Capital, the 'I-Love-My-India' thought is

like a wire-trap to me.

With every passing year, it is a great time

to hear same 'desh bhakti' songs and watch

same patriotic movies as you switch over

from one movie channel to another (with

'Gandhi' being a pet flick among channel

wallahs and 'Border' being the second-best)

that you have been watching since your

mother used to spoon-feed you over an

emotional 'Aye Mere Watan Ke Logo' from

Doordarshan!

Meanwhile, the nation stumbles along ...

rampant corruption, trillions of black money

stashed abroad, slowing economy and

increasing inflation...

Amid economic gloom comes 66th

Independence Day (only to be forgotten a

week later). We do get patriotic, on an annu-

al basis though!

Still, I love my India, because a handful of

Indians have made the nation proud at just-

concluded London Olympics, with the best-

so-far six medals' tally (and a solace in

Pakistan not even figuring in the 200-plus

countries' list, while Pakistanis are taking

solace that in hockey they finished higher

than us); the nation has got fresh heroes

(and advertisers a fresh lease of blood!).

I love India because despite the failure of

the civil society movement (read Team

Anna, or India Against Corruption, India

United Against Corruption...End

Corruption... choose your pick), there is

hope flickering, of a corruption-free India,

when the Ombudsman (Lokpal) will be

appointed who will wield the 'honest' stick

against those who are busy looting the

nation (though a Uttar Pradesh minister has

another formula: Work for the people and

you can steal a little!)

I love my country because despite the

crime graph against women touching new

highs (Assam girl molestation LIVE is fresh

in memory), we do have a National

Commission for Women, which keeps a

check against the monsters-on-roads and an

active police machinery that comes into

effect the moment crime is committed (min-

isters, high-net worth individuals and self-

made gentlemen and sons are foten an

exception!).

I love India because despite a poor or

failed monsoon, the government of the day

is able to feed one billion and 20 crore plus

of us on a daily basis. No matter if millions

of tons of foodstock goes waste or middle-

men make moolah while farmers commit

suicide, we get our dal-roti, and occasional-

ly burgers, pizzas too!

Some future Independence Day, I hope,

will usher us in a new world where on the

corruption index, we will figure last and on

Olympics, first (No typo here...)

Difficult to produce Olympics level players with such sports infrastructure.

Indian jugaad is a separate story though.

Cautious celebration and skepticism By Vikas Girdhar

I’ll get head-on into

what I believe is the

heart of the matter. It

is important to do some

reflection while celebrat-

ing India’s independence

day. While we Indians

and NRIs bask in the

glory that India is a sov-

ereign nation since 1947 and forging its

own destiny, I look beneath the surface

and see lots more to strive for.

Independence from British rule will

always remain a reason to celebrate with

throaty hoorahs year upon year, but what I

would like to see a bit more of is declaring

independence from cruelty, corruption and

discrimination. In this day and age, social

ills and economic iniquity are the gnawing

factors that we need to eradicate. As a col-

lective, Indians can pat themselves on the

back for winning freedom. But what have

we really accomplished if the individual

himself cannot be considered truly free of

factors that make any society in any cul-

ture ghastly and revolting?

Perhaps my perspective this year around

is a bit skewed; who can blame me?

Consider the ignorance exhibited less than

two weeks before India’s Independence

Day at the Sikh temple in Wisconsin. I

think of that horrific event as soon as I

catch myself getting too excited about 15th

August this year because, let’s face it,

society is still rife with bouts of discrimi-

nation (gender, racism, etc.) that when

overcome should in itself be a cause for

celebration. What guarantee is there that

the individual himself will ever attain per-

sonal independence from the factors that

contribute to a society’s filth?

The easy answer here is to seek to edu-

cate everyone in the right way as much as

possible. That only goes so far, in my

opinion. We can’t, for example, change the

way people are brought up or their person-

alities. Does this mean we’re forever

doomed and should grin and bear it? I

wouldn’t go to that extent but we can sure-

ly strive to improve ourselves. Charity

begins at home, as they say.

If we Indian Americans are heartily cel-

ebrating India’s independence, we need to

take a long and hard look at that society.

While I was born and have grown up here

for all of my life, I have numerous ties to

India.

One of those ties is my cousin, who

detailed one particularly disturbing situa-

tion in her Facebook status: a woman who

was attacked late at night was able to fend

off the man attempting to assault her and

should be applauded for her courage and

strength—except that that is not the case.

Instead, her motives for being out so late at

night to begin with are questioned.

Why is that the concern on the forefront

of people’s minds? It’s these types of inci-

dents that highlight the necessity of a soci-

etal self-improvement and mass cleansing

of the ugly aspects of human nature.

This Independence Day, jump high for

the well-deserved joy that comes from the

nation’s freedom.

I would advise, however, to not jump so

high that you lose sight of the same prob-

lems that will be here when you come

back down.

Satyamev Jayate TV show struck a chord with Indian audiences because it exposed the persisting social and economic ills 65 years after Independence.

47

August 18-24, 2012


1857 First Indian war of inde-

pendence that began as a mutiny

of sepoys of the East India

Company’s army on 10 May

1857, in the town of Meerut, soon

escalated into other mutinies and

civilian rebellions largely in the

upper Gangetic plain and central

India. The uprising sparked off

when the sepoys were forced to

bite the cartridges of the rifles to

open to release the powder. The

cartridges were greased with tal-

low derived from beef or lard

derived from pork, which was

offensive to both Hindus and

Muslims.

1885 Indian National Congress

formed by Indian and British

members of the Theosophical

society movement, and most

notably Allen Octavian. The idea

was originally conceived in a pri-

vate meeting of seventeen men at

the theosophical convention held

at Madras in December 1884.

1915 After fighting a long battle

of racism, prejudice and injustice

against the British government for

fellow Indians in South Africa,

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

returned to India.

1919 Gandhi supported the

Khilafat movement -a worldwide

protest by Muslims against the

collapsing status of the Caliph, the

leader of Muslim religion. The

same year saw the gruesome

Jalianwala Bagh massacre where

Brigadier-general Reginald E.H.

Dyer opened fire on a congrega-

tion of 15,000 to 20,000 people

assembled. According to figures

released by government of India,

there were 379 casualties and

1000 wounded.

1921 Gandhi rose to power with

his principles of satyagraha and it

is this year that he launched a civil

disobedience movement

1922 Fearing that the move-

ment was about to take a turn

towards violence after the violent

clash with the police officers in

the town of Cauri Chaura in Uttar

Pradesh, and convinced that this

would be the undoing of all his

work, Gandhi called off the cam-

paign of mass civil disobedience

1928 Murder of Lala Lajpat Rai

and subsequent revolutionary

activities

1930 The most significant

organized challenge to British

Empire was the Dandi salt March

known as salt satyagraha that

began on March 12, 1930. It was a

direct action campaign of tax

resistance and nonviolent protest

against the British salt monopoly

in colonial India, and triggered the

wider Civil Disobedience

Movement.

1937 Provincial Autonomy

begins with Congress winning

power in many states. The same

year saw World War II breaking

out, which affects India too.

1942 The Quit India Movement.

The year also saw the rise of

Subhas Chandra Bose. Popularly

known as Netaji, Bose was a

fierce and popular leader and also

president of Indian National

Congress in 1937 and 1939 and

founded a nationalist force called

the Indian National Army (INA).

1946 INA men tried. Muslim

League adamant about separate

statehood for Pakistan.

1947 India gains independence

from the British. Freedom on the

Midnight of August 15.

Nation building: But the bifur-

cation of the country into India

and Pakistan led to violent clashes

between Hindus and Sikhs on one

side and Muslims on the other.

Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru

invited Mountbatten to continue

as Governor General of India. He

was replaced in June 1948 by C.

Rajagopalachari. Patel took on the

responsibility of bringing into the

Indian Union 565 princely states.

The Constituent Assembly com-

pleted the work of drafting the

constitution on 26 November

1949; on 26 January 1950 the

Republic of India was officially

proclaimed.

The Constituent Assembly

elected Dr. Rajendra Prasad as the

first President of India, taking

over from Governor General

Rajgopalachari. Subsequently,

Goa, Pondicherry and Sikkim

were brought into the Indian

Union.

An artist’s representation of the massacre in Jalianwala Bagh, Amritsar.

Mahatma Gandhi in 1918, atthe time of the Kheda andChamparan Satyagrahas.

Freedom struggle: A Timeline

By Shiv Chopra

“I love my

India” –

yes, it is

an expression

and a feeling I

share with

many Indians I

come across

here in New York. Even though

being here in America you tend

to forget about India, but every

year, 15 August comes around

you can’t help but remember

everything you love about India.

As a child I remember how

every evening I would play hide

and seek or football (not the kind

known in America) with my

friends in Delhi. I could freely

go to my friends’ house, knock

and play without scheduling an

appointment over the phone. I

also remember how joyously we

celebrated our holidays like Holi

and Diwali. I also remember

everyone crowding around the

TV to watch cricket matches. But

what I remember most of all is

my whole extended family ever

so large yet ever so close. I

remember the amazing Indian

hospitality; even if I were a

stranger at somebody’s house, I

would be offered food. I still

crave the delicious food like

malai chicken tikka, poori chane

and dal makhni I had at eateries

there. These are available here

too, but not as tasty or flavorful.

Not everything I remember

about India is good. I remember

seeing a person pulled over by a

cop for jumping a red light and

getting away by bribing. I

remember the power outages

sometimes lasting days on days. I

remember the traffic jams, horns

going off left, right and center.

The overfilled buses sometimes

with people sitting on the roof.

The inflation going through the

roof. There seemed to be no end

to these problems and probably

won’t be for a while.

Yet, I love my India because

Indians always manage, always

pull through.

We can choose to live wherever

we want but we cannot forget

where we came from. Just like

you can choose your friends but

your family is given to you.

…Yet, I love my India

Craving the malai chicken tikka, poori chane and dal makhni onehad at eateries in India.

48

August 18-24, 2012


THE CONTRARIANSErupting India: Voice of Demographic Dividend

By Namit Narain

India is a

nation with

the second

largest popula-

tion on this

planet where

every 7th per-

son is an

Indian. The Demographic Dividend

is a window of opportunity in the

development of a society or nation

that opens up as fertility rates

decline, and faster rates of econom-

ic growth and human development

are possible when combined with

effective policies and markets. The

young working class (Demographic

Dividend) of India will provide 2%

per annum of economic growth to

India’s per capita GDP in the next

two decades.

This year Indian economy fell to

its slowest growth in almost a

decade, according to government

published documents. It is likely

that Indian economy might fall to

5.3% of growth rate as compared to

6.5% a year before and 8.3% in

2010. With this slow rate of growth

the Indian government has certain

questions to answer to its erupting

India.

� What made the investmentsshrink in the private sector? Was it

the coalition government and lack

of one voice?

� Despite the furious uprisingon the Jan Lokpal Bill, what

answers can government give to it

citizens that this bill is not a solu-

tion to avoid corruption?

� Did the government buy themedia in India?

� There have been umpteenmulti-crore scams in the govern-

ment, where went the money of the

tax payers?

� My major question is whatsignificant efforts have been made

in the field of Education and

Healthcare? If yes, what are the

major touch points?

� What can bring the food andoil prices down to impede the infla-

tion rate?

� Last but not the least, whatmakes the current leader of India

speak for its nation and to its

nation?

Today’s young generation seeks

some answers and need a major

shift with solid decision making

process for further growth by liber-

alization of the Indian Economy.

Business like retail, manufacturing,

aviation, Internet, and Insurance,

which need more capital, needs a

major shift to create more jobs and

cash flow to pump up the Indian

economy. In the past we have seen

some major backlogs of decisions

and a struggle for the Indian gov-

ernment to pass some unpopular

measures because of the opposition

from its coalition partners and

political rivals.

Lately, when the rupee is falling,

investment is down and inflation is

rising, and deficits and scams are

eating away government reserves,

Indian Demographic Dividend is

erupting. While recent worries in

the economy keep piling up, there

has been no major decision taken in

the past few months to boost the

economy.

There is a question for you, Mr.

Prime Minister, “Do you sleep well

in the night?” If not, get some pills

without asking your coalition gov-

ernment and get well soon. When

you say that government will take

some unpopular decisions, my sug-

gestion to you Mr. Prime Ministers

is that, don’t hurt Indian ‘Janta’.

Try to have guts to take some risk

and bring some reforms even if it

hurts your coalition and partners.

Please consider the Demographic

Dividend as a dividend and not as a

liability, since it is ready to pump

its blood and sweat if you or your

government can bring up with some

major liberal reforms in the econo-

my for a long run success. I am

sure you realize that India needs

such reforms every decade like the

one in 1991 brought by you itself.

I want to share some lines to you

and my fellow citizens of India,

which inspire me and make me a

proud Indian. These lines are by

Rabindranath Tagore:

Where the mind is without fearand the head is held high;

Where knowledge is free;Where the world has not been

broken up into fragments by nar-row domestic walls;

Where words come out from thedepth of truth;

Where tireless striving stretchesits arms towards perfection;

Where the clear stream of rea-son has not lost its way into thedreary desert sand of dead habit;

Where the mind is led forwardby thee into ever-widening thoughtand action --

Into that heaven of freedom, myFather, let my country awake.

--Rabindranath TagoreThe author is Vice President,

Strategy and BusinessDevelopment, The South AsianTimes.

Camel rate of growth now? While recent worries in the economy keeppiling up, there has been no major decision taken in the past few

months to boost the economy

A public awakening is long dueBy Vijay Badhwar

There is

often a

compari-

son made

between China

and India, the

two fastest

g r o w i n g

nations in the world, the eco-

nomic giants of Asia on whom

the world depends to sell their

raw materials. While there is

amazement at China’s infra-

structure development, which

spurs discussions on how large

power plants are constructed one

a week, efficient road networks

and super fast trains extended to

nooks and corners of the coun-

try, there is disappointment at

India’s lackadaisical approach

on adequate energy production

and efficient delivery structure.

Mega power failure this month

that plunged most of north and

eastern India in darkness for

whole days is an embarrassing

incident that cannot be easily

sidelined with little consequence

to the minister (Sushil Kumar

Shinde) who was rather promot-

ed from Power to the important

Home portfolio in a major cabi-

net reshuffle.

There were traffic jams on

roads; the trains came to a halt

and the passengers were trapped

inside the Delhi Metro; the busi-

ness and industry came to a

standstill as the West Bengal

Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee

declared a holiday.

Six hundred million people

were affected across 20 states.

But a Delhi journalist sadistical-

ly reported that life was not

seriously disrupted as most of

the people in India still used

kerosene lamps!

The power outage was caused

by, according to the minister,

overdrawing of electricity by

Uttar Pradesh. It is akin to plug-

ging too many heaters in one

power point/circuit which blows

a fuse. But this was a big fuse

indeed that blacked out a big

part of India.

India is the seventh largest

power consumer in the world. Its

efficiency in energy production

cannot be estimated as nearly 30

per cent of the power produced

is lost by theft.

The rest is highly subsidized

for farmers who consume nearly

22 per cent of the supply and the

domestic sector that uses 24 per

cent. The industry makes up for

the losses incurred from subsi-

dies.

While India has a variety of

power plants – thermal (coal and

gas), hydroelectric and nuclear,

the cheapest production is from

gas-fired plants. But one such

plant in Dabhol by Enron sup-

plies the most expensive elec-

tricity in India mired by allega-

tions of bribery during the times

of Narasimha Rao government.

Another experiment in Jaitapur

in Maharashtra of six nuclear

plants each of a capacity of 1650

MW is underway with French

collaboration and, once complet-

ed, will address power shortage

in India to a large extent.

India’s development is hin-

dered by widespread corruption

and skullduggery in every proj-

ect, be it communication, mining

or infrastructure development.

But, unfortunately, even the gen-

eral public has become numb to

the pain as lately it is hardly

paying heed to clarion calls for

action by Anna Hazare and Baba

Ramdev. A public awakening is

long due.

The author is Editor of TheIndian Down Under, Sydney.

A mega outage plunged most of north and eastern india in darkness.But a Delhi journalist sadistically reported that life was not seriously

disrupted as most of the people in India still used kerosene lamps!

14June 30-July 6, 2012

























































Taking note of the ground reality in China on a visit there last month,

the SATimes contributing editor draws comparisons

with the ground reality in India,

highlighting what the Dragon has to

teach the Elephant.


During my three week trip to Fujian province last month I found clear evidence of Chinese will to address

some basic issue with long term strategies. Fuzhou, the capital city of Fujian province is not a big city but it reflects high civic sense of its people and the local government. The city is clean and the local administration has provided civic amenities comparable to any other city of international standard. The police are not a common sight as it is in USA and Indian cities. People in general are peaceful who spend their leisure time out-doors in summer. Local folks relaxing in the parks and families enjoying in the open are common sights. They drink and dance in the open while using their mobile devices. Chi-na appears to be coping with modernization very well. Western style shopping malls are common even in smaller towns like Yon’gan, which is three hours drive from Fuzhou. I visited some glittering shopping centers in Yong’an where basement floors were the most crowded areas. Necessary household goods and groceries are sold in the basement

malls catering to middle class people. The shopping plaza was well managed with civic sense visible everywhere. Even the street shops are sparkling clean, spacious and add to the beauty of the city. The Chinese counterparts of some of the best shopping areas in Delhi and in Mumbai are more ef-ficiently managed and maintained. In my opinion city folks and civic governments of Indian cities have plenty to learn from their Chinese counterparts. I was told by my Chi-nese friends that most of the civic amenities and infrastructures, such as roads, flyovers all over China were constructed in recent years. “A road journey from Yon’gan to Fu-zhou took many hours five years ago, but the new highways and tunnels have cut that travel time to just about three hours”, they said. The highways are punctured with rest areas built in American style. The rest areas comprise shops, restaurants and clean toi-lets. Again, India needs to take a few lessons from China where public toilets are pro-vided by the government while Indians face miserable conditions at public places in the

absence of clean toilets. It is not an exag-geration to say that Indian government and administrations at all levels have shame-lessly failed to provide basic facilities of water and toilets for its people. The Chinese are very proud of their ancient history and traditions. So are Indians. The difference is China proudly displays its heritage, culture and language nationally and internationally. China is aggressively promoting its lan-guage, culture and heritage abroad. Teach-ing and promotion of Chinese language is strongly supported by the Chinese govern-ments. India lacks even symbolic displays of its language and culture abroad.

People of Indian origin seem proficient in disagreeing with each other. The Indian government has done good work in dividing its people on language issues. We are strug-gling to find common ground to have a unit-ed voice internationally. Indian government must move beyond providing lip service to its national language, Hindi. If it wishes to compete with China it has to learn how to display its heritage, culture and language.

India has yet to get rid of its colonial mind set when it comes to promoting its national image. China seems to have adopted a clear cut goal to win friends and supporters. When I was in China, Beijing was hosting a sum-mit on African-China cooperation. The goal of this highest level conference was to in-troduce economic opportunities in Africa to Chinese investors. Representatives of big and small African nations were trying to at-tract Chinese businesses and investors at the conference. Chinese media is government controlled. However, international enter-tainment channels are available for public. CCTV runs more than dozen channels in-cluding the English news channel as well as channels in Spanish and Arabic languages.

The Chinese government is following the model of Voice of America and BBC for projecting Chinese perspective on cur-rent affairs and politics. The country has its own versions of YouTube and Facebook, because these global platforms are banned. Many people are not happy about it but most of them are moving ahead while Chinese internet sites catering to young people are enriching themselves and trying to com-pete with their Western counterparts. On the media front Indian citizens might be more savvy but the Indian government is marred by monumental scandals and corruption. It is said that India and China compete with each other in corruption. The common folks in China are struggling to get high paid jobs while the elite of the country is getting enor-mously rich. In both countries, private en-trepreneurship seems to be booming which could be a driving force for their economic growth. Lastly, China is flexing its muscle in the international arena. It is in no mood to comprise on territorial claims with other countries. China’s stern foreign policy is geared towards influencing other super pow-ers while its economic policy aims at enrich-ing its business people and investors. It is ready to do business with India, however, baggage of the past is hard to forgot.

August 18-24, 2012

The author learning to make dumplings Witnessing a Tea Ceremony

By Ashok Ojha

Why China is progressing faster than India

14June 30-July 6, 2012

























































Rubin Museum in NY honors India’s first female photo journalist,Homai Vyarawalla, with an exhibition of her legendary shots.

Nehru releasing a dove, sign of peace at a public function at the National Stadium in New Delhi; mid 1950’s

The ashes of Mahatma Gandhi being carried in a procession,

Allahabad; February 1948

Jacqueline Kennedy feeding Urvashi, the baby elephant at Teen Murti House,

Indira Gandhi is also seen; 1962

Queen Elizabeth II at a fashion show organized by the wives of

diplomats at the Central Cottage Industries in Delhi; 1961

Ho Chi Minh, President of North Vietnam being escorted by Pandit Nehru

and Dr. Rajendra Prasad; 1958

The Dalai Lama in ceremonial dress enters India through a high mountain pass. He is followed by

the Panchen Lama, Sikkim, India; 1956

Dr. Helen Keller, who was calling on President Dr. Rajendra Prasad at the Rashtrapati Bhawan, being greeted by Prime Minister Nehru who had come to see her; 1955

Queen Elizabeth II examining a gigantic garland presented to her in Madras; 1961

52S AT i m e s S p e c i a l

Independence through a candid lens

The Rubin Museum of Art is presenting Can-did: The Lens and Life

of Homai Vyarawalla, an exhi-bition celebrating India’s first female photojournalist, whose iconic images of the events sur-rounding India’s independence in 1947 from British rule en-deared her to the Indian people.

An employee of the Brit-ish Information Services from the 1940s–1970, Vyarawalla chronicled a nation in transi-tion, while also capturing can-did portraits of world leaders for prominent publications in-cluding Life and Time. She was hailed as a pioneer in her field and her recent death at age 98 generated tributes from around the world. She was bestowed Padma Vibhushan, India’s sec-ond highest civilian honor.

Homai Vyarawalla began working as a photojournalist in 1938, earning one or two ru-pees per photograph from the Bombay Chronicle to capture images of daily life in Bom-bay. She learned photography skills alongside her husband, Maneckshaw Vyarawalla.

Vyarawalla created rich vi-sual images that were to be-come iconic representations of India, its leaders and its people. The Rubin show presented some of the many images from Vyarawalla’s extensive career including important historical events, such as the meeting of Gandhi and the Congress Com-mittee to determine the vote for the 1947 plan to partition India and Pakistan into two countries, the first Independence Day celebration and flag hoisting ceremony at Red Fort; and the departure from India of Gov-ernor General Lord Mountbat-ten. Vyarawalla was also pres-ent during the visits of many world leaders and dignitaries including Jacqueline Kennedy; Helen Keller; Queen Elizabeth; Ho Chi Minh and Zhou Enlai, China’s first prime minister un-der Mao Zedong, often captur-ing them in lighter moments. She also documented the Dalai Lama’s arrival in India, in addi-tion to funerals of important po-litical leaders, such as Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shastri, the second prime minister of India.

The exhibition is open for public viewing until January 14, 2013.

August 18-24, 2012

Felicitation to the Community onIndependence Day

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Building Relationships


54

August 18-24, 2012


In an interview with The South Asian Times, 92-year-old freedom fighter Chimmanlal Jain reflects uponsome episodes from India’s struggle for independence – which include spending close to three years in

jail for attempting to set a bomb factory afire and converting dreaded dacoit from Chambal - andexpresses hope that mistakes made soon after Aug 15th 1947 shall be rectified in his lifetime.

By Hiral Dholakia-Dave

Circa 1930: In a small nondescript

village, 25 kilometers from the city

of Agra, a 10 year old school boy

doesn’t think twice before joining a

bunch of kids who go around pick-

eting at liquor stores. “Sharab galat

hai aur band karna hai – mann mein

bus yehi ek baat baith gai thi (that

liquor is bad and its consumption

and sale should be stopped was all

that we had in mind),” says

Chimmanlal Jain. When police

would resort to beating to stall the

demonstration the children would

run off and return soon. This zeal

and spirit was contagious.

Mahatma Gandhi’s anti-liquor cam-

paign was a precursor to his

Swadeshi andolan followed by Quit

India movement in 1942.

As a youth Jain developed mind-

set of a violent rebel. “I went to a

factory where bombs were being

made with the intention of setting it

on fire. Instead I got hurt badly in a

bomb blast out there, was arrested

by the British and sent to jail for 2

years and 8 months,” he says.

He was sent to a special jail for

freedom fighters in Agra along with

his compatriots from Dehradoon,

Jhansi and Agra. It was here that he

got introduced to Gandhi’s ideolo-

gies through this writings and read

up a lot including works of Leo

Tolstoy and Ruskin who influenced

Gandhiji’s ideologies.

During the prison stay Jain also

got the opportunity to meet several

prominent leaders including Ram

Manohar Lohiya and Jay Prakash

Narayan.

He was released in 1945. Oldest

of six siblings, he decided to get

married only after India gained its

independence, which it eventually

did two years after.

Later he, along with his wife

Kapooridevi two daughters and a

son left their home and dedicated

13 years of their lives working on

field for Vinoba Bhave’s Bhoodan

campaign.

A staunch Gandhian by then, he

was one of the firsts to join Jay

Prakash Narayan’s call for Total

Revolution in 1970s. Former Indira

Gandhi proclaimed national emer-

gency and the police were ordered

to arrest the protestors and thrash

them. Jain was among them. He

challenged the police inspector that

“if you thrash me and I retaliate

than I am not a Gandhian.”

In 1972, he was honored by

Indira Gandhi with a ‘Tamra Patra’

for ‘badi saza’ (long time spent in

prison as a freedom fighter).

Post independence Jain also

devoted lot of his time and

resources reconverting Muslims

into Hindus. Over a period of five

years he has reconverted 1430

Muslims from Rajasthan, Uttar

Pradesh and Haryana and spent

over a 1,00,000 rupees from his

own pocket for the same.

Jain also shares the credit of con-

verting and bringing an infamous

dacoit from Chambal into the main-

stream. Despite his family respon-

sibilities, he ventured into the

treacherous ravines of Chambal on

his own, spoke to the dacoit

Ramavtar Gujjar and convinced

him to surrender to the police. “The

times were different then, they

were social rebels,” he says.

When asked about his views on

India today he says, “The trouble

began ever since the Congress

Party resorted to undue Muslim

appeasement. That was the biggest

mistake made. India gained its

Republic status in 1950 and two

years later the country saw its first

independent election. Then

onwards our faults started coming

to fore. The laws were made by the

British to subdue Indians, no

changes were made those laws

despite gaining freedom. With

Sardar Patel no more, the reigns of

the nation were handed over to

Jawaharlal Nehru completely and

the biggest mistake he made was

going to the United Nations over

the Kashmir issue. If at all,

Pakistan should have gone. Nehru’s

that move cost us millions and loss

of more than 40000 precious

livestill date. That includes my

bright and promising grandson

Lieutenant Gautam Jain, who got

killed in Kashmir fighting the ter-

rorists at just 21 years of age. The

Congress Party today uses just the

name though its views are diametri-

cally opposite to the ideals on

which it was formed.”

Expressing disappointment with

the generation today Jain says, “It

seems like everyone is simply con-

cerned about his personal gains. Our

lives have become self-centered.

People are least bothered even

about their neighbors leave alone

their city or the nation. The freedom

of this country has been taken for

granted. Fortunately people like

Anna Hazare are trying to awaken

the mass consciousness. People

should come forward and support

such efforts wholeheartedly.”

Chimmanlal Jain (center) with Anna Hazare. A firebrand speaker, he was invited by Anna to come and share the dias. Anna Hazare touched his feet on the stage and commended him for his ideals

and life long struggle and uncompromising attitude.

‘Service to nation was ouronly motto in life’

56

August 18-24, 2012


Gadar – Spirited effort from foreign shores to free India

Originating in the Pacific coast of America, Gadar (meaning revolution) Partyis an important landmark in the history of Indian freedom struggle. The 100th

anniversary of Gadar movement falls in 2013.

By Inder Singh

The Gadar Movement was a

saga of incredible courage,

valor and determination of

overseas Indians to free India

from the shackles of British slav-

ery. Indians had come to Canada

and the US for economic oppor-

tunities or for higher education.

Instead, they imbibed the fire and

zeal of revolutionaries and

became trailblazers of freedom

struggle for India. They may have

lived ordinary lives but they left

an extra-ordinary legacy.

At the dawn of the twentieth

century, Indians started coming to

Canada and the United States for

economic opportunities. As the

number of immigrants increased

in Canada, the locals felt threat-

ened by labor competition from

the hardy and willing Indian

workers. Fear of labor competi-

tion led to racial antagonism and

demands for exclusionary laws

against cheap foreign “Asian

workers”. In 1908, the Canadian

government imposed restrictions

on new immigrants, which virtual-

ly ended immigration of Indians to

Canada.

In the US too, they started fac-

ing widespread hostility. The pent-

up frustrations of the white work-

ers manifested in violence against

Indian workers, vandalism of their

belongings and hatred of their reli-

gion, lifestyle and living. Like

Canada, the United States enacted

Asian exclusionary laws in 1917

to bar Asians emigrating to the

United States.

Many students from India had

come for higher education. But,

upon graduation, most of them

were not able to get jobs commen-

surate with their qualifications.

The Indian students attributed dis-

criminatory hiring practices to

their being nationals of a subjugat-

ed country. Lala Har Dyal, a pro-

fessor of Indian philosophy at

Stanford University, was identi-

fied with nationalist activities in

the United States. He inspired

many students studying at the

University of California, Berkeley

and channelized their pro-Indian

and anti-British sentiment for

independence of India. Two of his

many student followers, Katar

Singh Sarabha and Vishnu Ganesh

Pingle later played prominent

roles in the Gadar movement.

Dyal’s fervor for India’s freedom

spread beyond the university cam-

puses to Punjabi farmers and

laborers who had already been

victim of racial attacks, discrimi-

nation and repression from the

host community.

On April 23, 1913 (End of May,

per Prof Harish Puri in Ghadar

Movement; June 2, per Jagjit

Singh in Gadar Party Lehar), at a

meeting in Astoria, Oregon, Har

Dyal and others passionately

spoke for throwing the British out

of India. It was at this meeting

that Hindustan Association of the

Pacific Coast was formed with a

major objective to liberate India

from British colonialism with the

force of arms and help establish a

free and independent India with

equal rights for all. Sohan Singh

Bhakna was elected President,

Har Dayal as General Secretary

and Kanshi Ram as treasurer. Har

Dayal provided leadership for the

newly formed association and was

the central figure and the force

behind the new organization.

The headquarters of Hindustan

Association was established in

San Francisco from where a mag-

azine appropriately titled Gadar

was launched for free distribution

to promote the aims, objectives

and activities of the organization.

Gadar was sent to Indian revolu-

tionaries in India, Europe,

Canada, The Philippines, Hong

Kong, China, Malaysia,

Singapore, Burma, Egypt, Turkey,

and Afghanistan. The visible

effects of the Gadar publications

started to manifest in India and

abroad. Many committed volun-

teers opened branches of the

Gadar party in other countries.

The Gadar magazine became very

popular among Indians and over a

period of time, the Hindustan

Association of the Pacific Coast

itself became known as the Gadar

Party.

The British government used

every means to stop the circula-

tion of Gadar and other such pub-

lications, particularly in India.

They hired agents to infiltrate the

Gadar party and watch their activ-

ities. Under pressure from the

British Indian Government, Har

Dyal was arrested by the U.S.

Government, but later released on

bail on March 24, 1914. Har Dyal

jumped the bail and left for

Switzerland and from there, he

went to Germany.

Indians in Canada were unhappy

with the new laws, which effec-

tively prevented Indian immigra-

tion from India. An enterprising

Indian in Singapore, Gurdit Singh,

chartered a Japanese vessel

Komagata Maru and brought 376

passengers in May 1914, after

complying with the Canadian

exclusion laws. The Canadian

government refused disembarking

of the ship at Vancouver. After a

two-month legal wrangling, only

24 passengers were allowed to

immigrate and the ship was forced

to return to India on July 7. The

action of the Canadian govern-

ment created bitterness, frustration

and vengefulness not only among

the passengers but also among the

Indian people in Canada and the

US.

On the ship reaching Calcutta on

September 29, 1914, the British

Indian police opened fire on them

when they refused to go to Punjab,

resulting in several fatalities. The

police also arrested over 200 pas-

sengers and put them in Jail. The

brutal treatment of the returning

passengers generated a wave of

resentment against the British

government and encouraged more

Indians in North America to join

the Gadar party.

In August 1914, World War I

broke out. Germany offered the

Indian Nationalists (Gadarites)

financial aid to buy arms and

ammunitions to expel the British

from India while the British

Indian troops would be busy fight-

ing war at the front. The Gadarites

drew plans to infiltrate the Indian

army and excite the soldiers to

fight – not for the British but

against the British Empire – and

free India from the shackles of

British imperialism. The Gadarites

inspired an estimated 8,000 thou-

sands overseas Indians to go to

India to launch a revolution.

Before leaving for India, the

Gadarites had hoped that Indians

were ready for a revolution. They

however found that the Indian

political leadership openly and

willingly co-operated with the

British. Many Gadarites including

Sohan Singh Bhakna, president,

and Kesar Singh and Jawala

Singh, vice presidents, were taken

captives on reaching India while

Kartar Singh Sarabha, V.G. Pingle

and several others were able to

evade arrest. An estimated 3000

overseas Indians were intercepted;

more than 300 were put in jails

while many more were restricted

to their villages.

Kartar Singh Sarabha and other

Gadarite leaders worked with all

those forces that were working to

liberate India. They made alliance

with well-known revolutionaries

in India such as Ras Behari Bose.

They organized meetings to plan

for the revolution, procure arms

and arrange funds to carry out

propaganda and other activities.

Since many Gadarites were retired

military soldiers, they tried to

infiltrate into various units of the

armed forces. But, most of the

plans of the Gadarites either failed

or were foiled by the British

agents and by the end of February

1915, most of the Gadar activists

were taken captives.

The Gadarites were prosecuted

by the Special Tribunal. As many

as 46 including Kartar Singh

Sarabha and Vishnu Ganesh

Pingle were given death sen-

tences, 69 were imprisoned for

life and 125 were given varying

terms of imprisonment. In the San

Francisco Hindu German

Conspiracy Trial (1917-18), 29

“Hindus” and Germans were con-

victed for varying terms of impris-

onment for violating the American

Neutrality Laws.

The Gadarites did not hesitate to

make any sacrifice for the cause

of freedom, dignity and prosperity

of their motherland. They fought

valiantly for their cause and left a

major impact on India’s struggle

for freedom. The heroism,

courage and sacrifices of the

Gadarites inspired many freedom

fighters to continue their mission.

Former President K.R.

Narayanan, in his speech for the

90th anniversary celebration event

in Fremont, California, wrote, “In

the evolution of India’s struggle

for independence, the Gadar

Movement constitutes an impor-

tant landmark. Countless daring

and intrepid people participated in

that movement, set the goal of lib-

erating our country through armed

struggle, faced untold misery and

hardships in pursuit of their objec-

tive and even made the supreme

sacrifice of laying down their

lives.”The 100th anniversary of

Gadar Movement falls in 2013.

India and overseas Indians should

pay fitting and well deserved trib-

ute to Gadarites and Gadar mar-

tyrs.

Inder Singh is Chairman ofGlobal Organization of People ofIndian Origin (GOPIO).

Lala Har Dyal (1884-1939)gave the movement its zeal and

intellectual force.

Kartar Singh Sarabha (1896–1915), a leading luminary of the

Ghadar Party, was executed atLahore for his role in the

Ghadar Conspiracy.

Some Gadar movement members in a photograph from 1913, California.

14June 30-July 6, 2012


























































The free spirit of MumbaiFollowing World War I, which saw large

movement of India troops, supplies, arms and industrial goods to and from Bombay, the city life was shut down many times during the Non-cooperation movement in the 1920s. In the early 1930s, the nationwide Civil disobedience movement against the British Salt tax, sparked by Mahatma Gandhi’s Dandi march, spread to Bombay. Vile Parle was the headquarters of the movement in Bombay under Jamnalal Bajaj. The Royal Indian Navy Mutiny of 18 Febru-ary 1946 in Bombay marked the first and most serious revolt by the Indian sailors of the Royal Indian Navy against British rule.

One of the main forces behind the civil dis-obedience movement in Mumbai was Mahat-ma Gandhi who arrived at Mumbai in 1915, along with Kasturba by SS Arabia from South Africa via London. Narottam Morarji, J. B. Petit, Bhalchandra Krishna, B. G. Horniman, Revashanker Zaveri and Maganlal Gandhi took a launch to reach the steamer to welcome Kas-turba and Gandhi. A garden party in honor of Kasturba and Gandhi hosted by Gurjar Sabha at Mangaldas House in Girgaum, M. A. Jinnah presided over the meeting praising the work of Mahatma Gandhi in the cause of not only indentured Indians in South Africa but also of the motherland and Hindu-Muslim Unity, and Kasturba for standing by her husband. Revashankar Jagjeevan Jhaveri’s mansion, Mani Bhavan became an important base for Gandhi’s movements in Mumbai including his part in the Swaraj movement. Gandhi’s asso-ciation with the spinning wheel began in 1917, while he was staying at Mani Bhavan, where he met a carder and got him to card slivers of fine cotton. Gandhi started a spinning class in Mani Bhavan with himself as the main pupil.

We started our tour of Mumbai at the Mani Bhawan, which houses a library with Gandhi’s statue, staircase lined with photographs depict-ing events from the life of Gandhi, and a hall full of photographs and documents. The roof-top is where he was arrested on Jan 4, 1932.

From Mani Bhavan, we proceeded along the Laburnum Road to the Gowalia Tank and August Kranti Maidan), a park in central Mumbai where the climatic Quit India rebellion was promulgat-ed in August 1942 by the Congress in a public meeting at Gowalia Tank. Mahatma Gandhi’s

Quit India speech at the August Kranti Maidan in 1942 mobilized a huge Civil Disobedience movement as the British refused to grant inde-pendence till the World War was over.

From the maidan, we hired a taxi and drove to Appolo Bunder where Gandhi alighted when he returned by steamer from South Africa. The Gateway of India is the star attraction of this seaside boulevard. Commemorating the visit of King George, accompanied by Queen Mary, in 1911 when they stepped ashore at Apollo Bunder, this monumental gateway was com-pleted in 1923-4 by architect George Wittet who built many of Mumbai’s great buildings in an eclectic style incorporating the Indo-Sarace-nic style of blending Hindu and Islamic archi-tecture that grew in Gujarat in the 15th and 16th century, the imposing Deccani Islamic architec-ture of Bijapur and Victorian Gothic features.

From the Gateway of India we walked past the Art Deco Dhanraj Mahal to Regal Circle, which has a fine collection of colonial buildings, and crossed the road to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sanghralaya (Prince of Wales Museum). This museum is housed in a building founded to commemorate the visit of the Prince of Wales in 1905 and was opened only in 1822-3.

From the museum gate we followed MG Road to the entrance of Jehangir Art Gallery, one of the most important commercial galler-ies in Mumbai. On the opposite side of the road is the large National Gallery of Modern Art. Both house exhibitions. Continuing on MG Road we came to the Hutamata Chowk or Martyr’s Square named for the shooting of peaceful protestors asking for independent statehood for Maharashtra in 1960. This square has the Flora Fountain, one of Mumbai’s prin-cipal landmarks, with the statue of the Roman Goddess Flora erected in 1899 as a memorial to Sir Bartle Frere who was the governor dur-ing Mumbai’s urban planning in the 1860s.

From the west end of Hornimun Circle we followed Perin Nariman Street to Nagar Chowk beyond which is the Chhatrapati Shivaji Ter-minus (Victoria Terminus) that the people of Mumbai still call VT Station. One of the grand-est railway stations in the world, this remarkable and elaborate example of Indo-Gothic architec-ture in Mumbai was opened in 1887 to celebrate the golden jubilee year of Queen Victoria, more than three decades after the first train ran from this terminus to Thane. The building designed by SW Stevens has a huge central dome sur-mounted by a statue, Progress by Thomas Earp that was executed by Bombay School of Art, Corinthian columns, spires and minarets. The ticketing hall inspired by St Pancras Station has stained glass, glazed tiles and arches.

From VT Station, we took a taxi to the eight-lane Netaji Subash Chandra Road called Marine Drive which was built in the 1920s on reclaimed land. The pavement along the sea is a popular promenade of Mumbai leading from Nariman Point to Chowpatty Beach, alive with streetfood vendors and amusements for chil-dren, with Art Deco apartment blocks lining the opposite side of the road and Taraporewala Aquarium which is one of India’s most visited aquariums. The lights along the promenade which arcs along the sea towards Malabar Hill have given it the nickname `Queen’s Neck-lace’ at night. This strip of coastline was the site for many Quit India rallies in the early-20-th century when Mumbai was at the forefront of the Freedom Struggle.

August 18-24, 2012

The last British troops to leave India, passed through the arcade of the Gateway of India in Bombay on 28 February 1948, ending the 282 year long period of the British.

Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (C.S.T), historically called The Victoria Terminus, at Mumbai

By Anil Mulchandani

Photos by Dinesh Shukla

Mumbai or Bombay grew into a major city when the East

India Company leased all the seven islands in 1668 and de-veloped them to become their headquarters in India in 1672. In the early-20th century, Mumbai was the hotbed of the freedom struggle. In the 1870s and ‘80s, the movement began under nationalist, Dadabhai Naoroji and The Bombay Mill owners’ Association formed in order to protect interests threat-ened by possible factory and tariff legislation by the British. The foundation of the Indian National Congress in 1885 was one of the most important po-litical events in Bombay. Bal Gangadhar Tilak was a popular leader of the Indian Indepen-dence Movement in Bombay in 1904-05 becoming an iconic figure with his slogan, ̀ `Swaraj is my birthright.’’

On 22 July 1908, Tilak was sentenced to six years impris-onment, which led to huge scale protests in the city. The Bombay Chronicle was start-ed by Pherozeshah Mehta, the leader of the Indian National Congress, in April 1913, which played an important role in the national movement till India’s Independence. The most important event in Bom-bay early in 1915 was the visit of Mahatma Gandhi to Bom-bay. When the All India Home Rule League was inaugurated by Annie Besant at Chennai (then Madras) in September 1916, Tilak started Home Rule League at Bombay in May 1916 to bid for support of the mill workers in Bombay. Lord Willingdon convened the Provincial War Conference at Bombay on 10 June 1918, whose objective was to seek the co-operation of the people in the World War I measures which the British Government thought it necessary to take in the Bombay Presidency. The conference was followed by huge rallies across the city.

Bombay was the main cen-ter of the Rowlatt Satyagraha movement started by Mahatma Gandhi from February — April 1919. The movement was start-ed as a result of the Rowlatt Act, which indefinitely extend-ed emergency measures during the First World War in order to control public unrest.

14June 30-July 6, 2012


























































Ranchi’s Raj relics They made Ranchi the summer capital of the Bihar provinces and Netarhat became a hill sta-tion retreat with a prestigious public school. Af-ter independence, the relatively cooler climes of the Chhotanagpur Plateau continued to attract people from Kolkata and Patna. Today, Ranchi’s main attractions are the spectacular waterfalls making base in this capital city of Jharkhand and the picturesque villages of the tribal groups that take pride in their independent spirit.

We arrived at Ranchi’s Birsa Munda Airport and drove to the Tribal Research Institute on Morabadi Road. The institute has a museum of-fering an insight into the cultures of 32 tribal groups including information about their history, customs, performing arts and religious rituals, and exhibits like weapons, musical instruments and arts. The Ranchi University too has a mu-seum collection of archaeological finds of the Chotanagpur plateau, which covers Jharkhand and neighboring areas of Andhra, Orissa, West Bengal and Chhatisgarh, and also of the Anda-man & Nicobar Islands.

From here we drove to the Gossner Evangeli-cal Lutheran Church which was established at Ranchi in the 1800s and housed in its present building from 1919. The missionaries returned to Ranchi after the mutiny and established An-glican and Catholic churches in Ranchi. The Lutheran church is especially impressive.

As evening approached, we drove out to Ranchi Hill, which locals seem to know better as Pahar Mandir because of the temple on the sum-mit. After climbing what seemed like hundreds of steps, we came to the terrace on the hilltop which offers a panoramic view of the city includ-ing the attractive Ranchi Lake and surrounding hills. The Ranchi Lake excavated in 1842 by the British officers is near the foot of the hill and centrally situated in the city is a popular recre-ational spot. Another attractive water body is Kanke Dam near which is a Rock Garden featur-ing figures made from the natural rocks of Gonda Hill, artificial waterfalls and amusements.

After the sunset, we walked around bustling areas like Main Road, Upper Bazaar and Sainik Bazaar. We picked up tribal ornaments, Dokhra handicrafts, woodwork and other handicrafts and tried some Jharkhandi food including monsoon season mushroom curries, ending with Bengali, Odiya and Bihari sweets on the Main Road.

The next morning, the driver took us out to the Hazaribagh Road to see the Birsa Munda Zoo-logical Park at Ormanjhi, about 20 minutes out of Ranchi. The zoo is pleasantly situated and the highlight is the great one-horned Indian rhino in a naturalistic setting of marshes and grasses. We continued to Hazaribagh, which was a cantonment from 1790 to 1884 and gave birth to a planned city with Boddam Bazar as the center. British set-tlers built large bungalows in this town near the Hazaribagh forests that provided them with tiger, leopard and deer shooting opportunities. The Haz-aribagh Central Jail housed many leaders of the Indian freedom movement, including Dr. Rajendra Prasad, who became the first president of India and Jayaprakash Narayan was put under arrest in this jail during the Quit India Movement of 1942. His escape from this high security prison and the sup-port he received from the local people is one of the legends of the Indian Independence movement.

For tourists, Hazaribagh’s main claim to fame is the Hazaribagh Wildlife Sanctuary. This sanc-tuary largely comprises sal forests in the upper Damodar river valley and has a sizable list of mammal species including sloth bear, leopard, sambar, spotted deer, nilgai, etc. As this is a vital wildlife corridor connecting Palamau Betla with the forests around Ranchi and the Dalma hills, elephants and tigers are known to come in from the Betla National Park, among the first nine Project Tiger notified reserves in India and the site of one of India’s first tiger census in India.

August 18-24, 2012

Ranchi cityscape

A tribal haat in Jharkhand

Ranchi church

By Anil Mulchandani

Celebrations rocked Ranchi when Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar

as India’s 28th state on 15th November 2000, the birth anni-versary of freedom fighter Birsa Munda who is revered as god in the tribal-dominated areas of Jharkhand for his work as one of the freedom fighters in the Indian struggle for indepen-dence against British colonial-ism and his movement to assert the rights of the Munda tribal people as the real proprietors of the soil and the expulsion of middlemen and the British.

Ranchi and the forests of Hazaribagh have been closely associated with the indepen-dence movement from the 1857 Mutiny to the initiatives of Birsa Munda, struggles that embody the independent spirit of Jharkhand’s tribal communities. The tribal rebel-lions from the Chhota Nagpur Plateau which now comprises Jharkhand posed a significant challenge to the British during 1857. It began with a ‘mutiny’ of the `sepoys’ at Hazaribagh on July 30 and soon engulfed the tribal heartland of Chhota Nagpur. A detachment of the Ramgarh regiment sent to dis-arm the Hazaribagh mutineers, defied orders and marched back to Ranchi under the lead-ership of Jamadar Madhav Singh and Subedar Nadir Ali Khan. They were joined by the Hazaribagh rebels and on reaching Ranchi, Jaimangal Pandey joined the forces with his entire battalion. Units from Hazaribagh, Ramgarh, Purulia (Manbhum), and Singhbhum marched towards Ranchi and attacked British bungalows and official buildings, looted the treasury, destroyed gov-ernment records, and releas-ing prisoners from jails while marching to Ranchi. At Ranchi, they made base and began to mobilize support from differ-ent areas. By end August, the military leaders also called a political conference at Ranchi to resolve potential issues and deliberate on the future course of action. Unfortunately, the sepoys broke into factions.

Despite all the protests against the colonial system, Jharkhand was the preferred summer destination of the British officers resident in Bi-har’s capital, Patna, because of its coolerelevation between 2000 and 3000ft.

Photos by Dinesh Shukla

14June 30-July 6, 2012


























































Historic coastal city of Calicut

Kerala Simham or the Lion of Kerala be-cause of his initiatives to resist British impe-rialism from 1793 till his death in 1805. He fought two wars to resist British intervention in the domestic affairs of Kerala including the issue of who was to be master of Wayanad.

This city was also witness to several movements as part of the struggle for Indian independence from the British. This was the venue for the meeting of the Congress in 1904 with C. Vijayaraghavachariar in the chair. A branch of the All India Home Rule League founded by Annie Besant also func-tioned in the city. K. P. Kesava Menon was an active member of the Home Rule Movement in Kozhikode. In 1916, K.P.Kesava Menon staged a walk out of the Town Hall when he was denied permission by the Collector to address the meeting in Malayalam. Two publications, the Mathrubhumi and Al Amin launched in the 1920s by Sri K.P.Kesava Menon and Muhammad Abdur Rahiman respectively fostered the spirit of National-ism. On May 12, 1930, following Mahatma Gandhi’s Salt Satyagraha, independence ac-tivists assembled at Calicut beach under the leadership of Muhammad Abdur Rahiman to break the ‘Salt laws’ and were attacked by the police injuring more than 30 people with K.P.Krishna Pillai and R.V.Sharma de-fending the National flag from forcible sei-zure by the police. In the 1930s, All Kerala Political Conference in September 1932 was held in the city during which four hundred delegates were arrested. Mrs. L.S.Prabhu of Thalassery, who courted arrest during the conference, was ordered to surrender all her gold ornaments including the tali or mangal-sutra received nationwide condemnation. Calicut was also a major centre for the rising Communist Party of Malabar in 1939 and the Quit India Movement.

Today, Kozhikode is an important trading center for timber and tiles and a commercial city for the northern districts of Kerala.

We asked local directions for the Moplah quarter where the Malabari Muslims have their finest mosques. We drove first to the Kuttichara mosque, which the locals told us dates to the 15th century. The mosque is unique in belonging to the traditional Kerala style of architecture rather than the Middle Eastern style that is prevalent in more recent mosques of Kerala.

We drove out of the area to the Pazhas-siraja Museum, located at East Hill. This museum is managed by the State Archaeo-logical Department. The museum is best known for its copies of original murals, models of temples and megalith monu-ments of Kerala. The museum has infor-mation and artifacts regarding the life of this royal who deified British imperialism.

We drove next to the Kozhikode Art Gal-ley, which has an extensive collection of paintings by Raja Ravi Varma, Raja Raja Varma, and other Indian artists, besides wood sculptures and ivory carvings. The Krishna Menon Museum has a section in honor of the great Indian leader V.K. Krishna Menon, the Kerala statesman who became an impor-tant figure in Indian political history.

The Tali temple is an interesting example of the traditional Keralan architectural style, us-ing laterite walls and wooden roofing. There are two important shrines here, one dedicated to Narasimha and the other to Krishna. The Zamorin built the temple in the 14th century as part of his palace complex. The temple is famous for the Revathi Pattathanam, an annual competition of educational skills.

August 18-24, 2012

Calicut beach

Zamorin of Calicut with Vasco da Gama

Malabari mosque architecture in Calicut

By Anil Mulchandani

Calicut, now better known as Kozhikode, is a historic coastal

city that was once one of the wealthiest kingdoms in India. A port that exported spices, ivory, timber, and cloth (Calico textiles derive their name from Calicut) it prospered and grew into an important city. The me-dieval rulers, titled the Zamor-in, forged important trade links with the Arabs and the Chi-nese, in an era when Europe-ans were unable to access the Malabar Coast because of the Ottoman domination of the Red Sea that fell on the sea route. By doing this, they es-tablished Kozhikode’s monop-oly over the international spice trade from the Malabar Coast. The Zamorins were reputedly one of the wealthiest rulers of India and had a rich cache of gold and pearls. Marco Polo described the Zamorin’s terri-tory in 1320 A.D. as the “great province of Malabar.”

Ibn Batur relates the won-ders of Calicut and Quilon and eulogies the riches of the Muslim merchants of the 14th century. “The greater part of the [Muslim] merchants are so wealthy that one of them can purchase the whole freightage of such vessels as put in here and fit out others like them,” he wrote on one of his six visits to the Zamorin’s capital.

Life in Kerala changed when the Portuguese, led by Vasco Da Gama, landed at Kappad near Kozhikode in 1498 and 1502 A.D. His attempts to forge ties with the Zamorin failed and the Portuguese turned their attention to Co-chin. The Zamorin, fearing his trade monopoly was at an end, launched an offensive against the Raja of Cochin. The Portu-guese supported the Raja and beat back the Kozhikode forc-es. The Zamorin was forced to accede to Portuguese demands. In the 18th century, the Sultans of Mysore invaded Kozhikode. The Zamorin realized victory was impossible and as Sultan Hyder Ali refused offers of peace, he immolated himself and his family. The Sultans were driven out by the East In-dia Company who made Ma-labar, including Kozhikode, a province ruled directly by the British Empire.

One of the key attractions of Kozhikode is the museum ded-icated to Pazhassi Raja, called Photos by Dinesh Shukla

64

August 18-24, 2012


The ‘Reel' PatriotismMoving away from the trend of simply showcasing rival nations in the patriotic movies,

the Indian film industry has chosen more peaceful and subtle ways of putting across themessage. The young Indian generation treats patriotism in their own way. SATimes takes

a peek into new generation films that have redefined patriotism for usTop 10

patrioticsongs

1. Insaf ki dagar pe, bach-

chon dikhao chalke; Yeh

desh hai tumhaara, neta

tumhi ho kal ke...

Movie: Ganga Jamuna

(1961)

2. De Di Hume azadi,

bina khadig bina dhhal,

Saabarmati ke Sant tu ne

kar diyaa kamaal

Movie: Jaagruti (1954)

3. Aye Watan, aye

watan... hum ko teri kasam,

Teri rahon mein jaan tak

luta jayenge..!

Movie: Shaheed (1965)

4. Aye mere pyare watan,

aye mere bichchde

chaman,Tujhpe dil qurban!

Movie: Kabuliwala

(1961)

5. He Preet jahan ki reet

sada, main geet wahan ke

gaata hoon, Bharat ka

rehne wala hoon, Bharat ki

baat sunaata hoon..!

Movie: Purab Aur

Pachhim (1970)

6. Dulhan chali ho pahen

chali teen rang ki choli...

Movie : Purab Aur

Pachhim (1970)

7. Apni azadi ko hum har-

giz mita sakte nahin, Sar

kata sakte hain lekin sar

jhuka sakte nahin

Leader (1964)

8. Kar chale hum fida

jaan-o-tan saathiyon, Ab

tumhare hawale watan

saathiyon!

Movie: Haqeekat (1965)

9. Yeh jo desh hai tera,

swadesh hai tera...

Movie: Swades

10. "Jine Naaz hai hind

par who kahan hai...!"

Movie: Pyaasa (1957)

Rang De BasantiN

o list on

patriotic

films is

complete with-

out this

R a k e y s h

O m p r a k a s h

Mehra classic.

This coming of

age film started

a trend of sorts

for the numer-

ous peaceful protests at India

Gate that took place after the

film was released. A story of

five carefree youngsters who are

jolted to reality after a friend’s

death redefined the way we

youngsters perceived patriotism.

Starring Aamir Khan, Kunal

Kapoor, Sharman Joshi,

Sidharth and Soha Ali Khan, the

film dealt with issues like cor-

ruption and other loopholes in

the society.

A WednesdayS

et in the after-

math of the 7/11

attack in

Mumbai, which crip-

pled the city due to

bomb blasts in the

locals, the film showed

the other side of the

Indian.

The film showcased

that India was no

longer willing to be at

the mercy of a hapless

government. Starring

Naseeruddin Shah and Anupam

Kher, the film was written and direct-

ed by debutant filmmaker Neeraj

Pandey.

Mission KashmirK

a s h m i r ,

the pris-

tine valley

and the outlawed

youth were beau-

tifully captured in

this Vidhu Vinod

Chopra film.

Chopra, who

spent his child-

hood in Kashmir,

showcased the

story of the locals

and how terrorism

had tarnished the

image of an otherwise peaceful

state. The film captured the patri-

otic Army officer’s (Sanjay Dutt)

desperate attempt to get back his

outlawed son (Hrithik Roshan)

home and the inner conflict that

he has to go through – to choose

between his country and his

family.

Chak De! India

Shah Rukh Khan played a

fallen hockey hero who

makes a comeback to coach

the Indian women’s hockey team.

The film also established the fact

that when it came to protecting the

honour of one’s country religion

took a backseat. The film had a

muslim hero, accused to giving

away a winning match to Pakistan,

resurrecting his career and the

nation’s honour.

Kahaani

Yes it was a thriller and

story of a pregnant Vidya

Balan looking for her

lost husband in the streets of

Kolkata. But the film had an

underlying theme of patriotism

where a woman is specially

trained by the intelligence to

eradicate a dreaded terrorist from

the face of earth.

LakshyaH

rithik Roshan played a

reluctant soldier who

was initially clueless

about his l i fe and how his

inclusion in the Indian army

and Kargil war changes his per-

ception about l i fe and his

country.

DusI

ntelligence agents never

looked so hot. Sanjay Dutt,

Abhishek Bachchan, Zayed

Khan and Shilpa Shetty played

officers of the Anti Terrorist

Squad who put their country

before their family. The plot

revolved around ATS officers fly-

ing to Toronto to arrest a dreaded

terrorist Jamwal who no one has

seen before and who had plans to

assassinate the Indian Prime

Minster who was there on a visit.

A high octane thriller, the film

was popular for its music and

stellar performance the star cast.

SarfaroshO

ne usually doesn’t go

wrong when there is

Aamir Khan and

Naseruddin Shah in a film

together. John Mathew Mathan’s

film on cross border terrorism

had Shah playing a ghazal singer

who was also a secret ISI agent.

Aamir played ACP Rathod who

is a righteous cop whose family

goes through trials after his

brother is killed by a terrorist

group.

The film dealt with the strain

relationship that India and

Pakistan shares but the entire

issue was dealt in the most realis-

tic manner. There was no chest

thumping screaming jargons

about mother land here...


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OPEN HOUSE SCHEDULELocation Date Time

SUN AUG 19 LONG ISLAND 1000 Woodbury Road,Suite 109, Woodbury,

NY 11797

11:00 AM

Ph

oto

by:

ww

w.s

tarr

dig

ita

l.co

m

email: [email protected]


Naperville, IL: Veggie Fest Chicago, one of the largest vegetarian festivals in North America, impressed organizers, ven-dors and visitors yet again when it broke all previous attendance records as more than 25,000 people flocked to the grounds of the Science of Spirituality Meditation Center in Naperville, Illinois on August 11 and 12.

The gorgeous Chicago weather encour-aged the large crowds to come early and stay late to enjoy more than 100 vendor booths, experts speaking on health, nutri-tion and spirituality, an extensive interna-tional vegetarian food court, live cooking demos, meditation classes, exciting chil-dren’s activities and great live music by lo-cal bands. Admission was free with Science of Spirituality its principle sponsor.

On both days, people thronged the food courts, danced to the music and attended the many talks and demos Veggie Fest has become noted for. Vendors busily served

the thousands of people coming to their booths – many making record sales.

“We’re thrilled with the incredible turn out this year,” said event coordinator Jona-than Kruger. “It’s great to see so many peo-ple coming out for a weekend in celebration of vegetarianism and spirituality.”

Highlighting the weekend’s festivities were the keynote talks by His Holiness Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj, a world re-nowned spiritual Master and head of Science of Spirituality, drawing audiences of over 2,000 people with overflow crowds gather-ing around the grass outside the main tent.

On Saturday, during his talk, “Meditation as Medication for the Soul,” the spiritual Master spoke not only about the benefits of a vegetarian lifestyle, but also about re-building the health of our body, mind, and soul through meditation, and how medical research has proven that those who medi-tate and pray heal faster.

Saturday also saw the release of Sant Ra-jinder Singh Ji Maharaj’s latest book, Med-itation as Medication for the Soul which presents the proven benefits of meditation for spiritual, physical, mental, and emo-tional health; for improved brain function and performance; achieving balance and wellness; and also for pain management.

During his second keynote address, “Spir-itual and Physical Health through Vegetari-anism,” he began by recalling how vegetari-anism has become more popular with the increased focus on health and nutrition. He then explained we need to understand that we are more than just the physical body – we have an emotional, mental, and spiritual self also – and we need to have an experience of our soul in order to grasp this truth.

Festival-goers enjoyed a special treat when long-time vegan Miss Chicago, Maris-sa Buchheit, took to the entertainment stage. All the bands proved popular and the sea of

cheering fans begged the young kids’ rock and roll band, Live Wire, for an encore.

“There’s something for everyone here! My kids had a blast and even my non-vegetarian husband is having a great time,” said one fan.

Another new record was set with large numbers pledging to take the Vegetarian Challenge, an initiative encouraging people to drop meat, fish, chicken, and eggs for one week in exchange for a vegetarian lifestyle.

As Veggie Fest drew to a close on Sunday beneath a light drizzle, the crowds slowly dis-persed, reluctant to leave the food, music and fun. Vendors commented on the great turn out and visitors talked about the friendly people, the family feeling, and delicious food they enjoyed. Many said they couldn’t wait until next year.

For more information about Veggie Fest, visit www.veggiefestchicago.org. For infor-mation about Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Ma-haraj, including his schedule, visit www.sos.org or call 630.955.1200.

Record-breaking crowds attend Naperville Veggie Fest

More than 25000 people attended the fest

Release of Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj’s latest book, Meditation as Medication for the Soul

On both days, people thronged the food courts, danced to the music and attended the many talks and demos at Veggie Fest

Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj with his new book

The event had activities of interest to all age-groupsVisitors attending Sant Rajinder Singh Ji’s talk on benefits of vegetarianism

The highlight of the Veggie Fest on the grounds of the Science of Spirituality Meditation Center

in Chicagoland was the keynote talks by Sant Rajinder Singh Ji

Maharaj, head of Science of Spirituality.

70 Tristate Community

August 18-24, 2012 TheSouthAsianTimes.info

Unforgettable cultural enrichment andentertainment experience

Hauppauge, NY: The Hyatt

Regency Hotel at Hauppauge in

Long Island came alive August 12

as visitors came from all over to

celebrate India Fest 2012 organ-

ized by the India Association of

Long Island (IALI). The hotel

with its beautiful panoramic

views was jam packed within the

first hour with thousands of peo-

ple; the full day crowd was esti-

mated to be over 10,000.

Tony Avella, NY State Senator,

Ed Mangano, Nassau County

Executive, Jon Kaiman,

Supervisor Town of North

Hempstead, Catherine Green–

from office of Suffolk

County–were among the digni-

taries present, while support also

came from Congressman Steve

Israel, elected officials of Nassau

and Suffolk counties, and Towns

of Hempstead and North

Hempstead.

Celebrity entertainers showcas-

ing the event included: Manu

Narayan, singer, actor and musi-

cian, star of “Bombay Dreams”

and “The Love Guru” and

Chandan Kaur, Miss India USA

2011. Fashion show by Rose

Boutique featured costumes from

the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion

Week in Delhi. The evening’s fes-

tivities featured more dancing,

melodious Bollywood songs by

Nipun Marwaha and a raffle.

Upon entering the lower level

of the hotel, festival attendees

were drawn to the multiple richly

decorated stalls with vendors fea-

turing Indian jewelry, designer

clothing and handbags. The grand

ballroom was filled with thou-

sands of guests who came from

all over New York not just Long

Island. The deep magenta, yellow

and green colors in the saris were

showstoppers. Kids enjoyed spe-

cial activities like kids rides, Face

Painting, Henna and Tattoos.

IALI also honored community

leaders: Sudhir Vaishnav, Ramesh

Raja, Chandra Mehta, Manmeet

Lamba, Tina Shah, Perry Walia

and Bawa Rajinder Singh Lalli

for their humanistic and philan-

thropic ideals and community

service. Students Ankit Shah and

Shruti Parekh were acknowl-

edged for academic achievements

and service to community.

Sponsors honored on stage

included SBI, Kingfisher

Airlines, Hyatt Regency Hotel,

Mr. Ramesh Goel from Atlantic

Partner Financial Group, and var-

ious media partners.

Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano speaking at theIndia Fest 2012.

Hon Ed Mangano posing with Manu Narayan, star of‘Bombay Dreams’ fame

Sudhir Vaishnav of Sahara TVwas among the honorees.

Photos: Vaaho and Irwin Mendlinger

Kitty Jain (seventh from right) of Rose Boutique with models of her fashion show, along with Miss India USA 2011 Chandan Kaurand IALI organizing Committee members Dr. Ranu, Darshan Ranu, and others.

Honoree Ramesh Rajapur, VicePresident of State Bank of India,

New York.

IALI President Dr. Sukhvinder Ranu receiving citation from Nassau CE Ed Mangano.

Members of Executive Council of IALI at the opening ceremony of India Fest.

Kamlesh Mehta, Chairman, The South Asian Times, receivingbouquet from CE Ed Mangano and NYS Senator Tony Avella.

IALI India Fest

WHAT DO YOUSEE WHEN YOUTHINK OF INDIA?

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Visit www.SOS-INDIA.org/help

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When you think of India, do you see a

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1001 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1250, | Washington DC 20036-5520 202.347.7920 | 888.SOS-4KIDS | [email protected]


US Affairs 73


Paul Ryan as running mate ofRomney has energized conservatives Washington, DC: Mitt

Romney’s selection of

42-year old Paul Ryan, a

7-term congressman

from Janesville,

Wisconsin has raved up

the campaign in run up to

the November election.

Ryan is the Chairman of

the House Budget

Committee and a senior

member of the powerful

House Ways and Means

Committee. He is probably best

known for putting forward the

Ryan budget, (a.k.a. "The Path to

Prosperity") for 2012, which drew

high praise from fellow

Republicans and negative reac-

tions from Democrats.

Variously described as among

the GOP’s brightest young stars

and the GOP’s No. 1 ideas guy,

Ryan’s focus on fiscal austerity in

his budget plan and his wealth of

knowledge on fiscal and health

care matters bolsters Romney’s

argument that his presidency

would be all about the economy

and would likely excite parts of

the Republican base who are fans

of the young and eloquent Ryan.

Also, Ryan was a natural fit with

Romney when he campaigned for

the future nominee in Wisconsin,

which led to further speculation

that Ryan could be Romney’s

choice.

President Obama already lit a

fire under religious conservatives

when he announced his support of

same-sex marriage, and Ryan is

an effective speaker who would

bolster Romney’s argument that

the election is about the economy.

Ryan does have plans he has put

forth to help start the economy

again, and would provide cover

for Romney, who has been

accused recently by conservative

writers for not having detailed

plans to get the economy moving

again.

Mitt Romney with Paul Ryan

Somber interfaith memorial for Gurdwara shooting victims in Washington capital area

Washington, DC: Hundreds from many different faiths

gathered in solidarity on Saturday for an act of healing at a

vigil organized by the Siva Vishnu Temple and the United

Hindu Jain Temples of Washington, D.C. and cosponsored

by the Hindu American SevaCharities. The memorial for

the victims of last week’s shooting at a Sikh Gurudwara in

Oak Creek, Wis. was held at the Sri Siva Vishnu Temple in

Lanham,Md. “We all share the sorrow of our Sikh brothers

and sisters at this time of need,” said Dr.Suryanarana

Siram, chair of the board of trustees of SSVT. “We must

pull together as one community.”

“Events like these bring all religious people together to

show support and solidarity,” added Mythili Bachu, presi-

dent of the United Hindu Jain Temples of Washington D.C.,

which has 14 temples in the surrounding area. “It also pres-

ents an opportunity to educate the community and take us

out of ignorance. The Obama Administration has done a

superb job. It’s a comfort to know that they are just there.”

Indian ambassador to the United States Nirupama Rao

spoke at the event, citing President Barack Obama’s out-

reach to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh following

the tragedy. Gautam Raghavan, associate director of the

White House Office of Public Engagement repeated the

president’s thoughts and prayers and Lt. Ravi Chaudhary

reflected on the important role Sikhs have played in

defending America. Maryland AttorneyGeneral Douglas

Genslar commended the Sikh community’s response to the

tragedy, calling it a “teaching moment” – one that shows

how to respond to hatred with nonviolence, peace and love.

Representatives from Governor Martin O’Malley’s office

and the Maryland state legislature joined Attorney General

Genslar, sharing their sympathies and comforts too.

Shekar Narasimhan of Dunn Loring, Va., a former trustee

of the SSVT and a board Member of the Hindu American

Seva Charities said the event brought together representa-

tives from a variety of religions – Hinduism, Jainism,

Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, Zoroastrianism, and the Ba’hai

faith – as well as senior representatives from the White

House, Pentagon, Indian Embassy, Maryland state govern-

ment and the Lanham Police Department.

Throughout the event, community leaders talked about

the importance of understanding the different faiths that

exist freely in the U.S. The Interfaith Conference of

Metropolitan Washington distributed literature about the 11

most prominent religions in the United States, including

those represented at the event.

The event culminated in a viewing of excerpts from the

PBS documentary, “The Asian and Abrahamic Religions: A

Divine Encounter in America.” Jerry Krell, filmmaker of

the documentary, prayed with others in the audience.

Officers from the Lanham Police Department shared their

prayers as well, urging the community to play their part by

remaining alert and reporting any suspicious activity.

Bel Leong-Hong, chair of the Democratic National

Committee’s Asian American Pacific Islander Caucus, was

touched by the interfaith gathering. “It was a moving expe-

rience,” said Bel Leong-Hong.

Community members stand to honor victims of the shooting at a Sikh gurudwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin.

(Photo : Ashwani Ramamurthy, Volunteer, SSVT)

Arsha Vidya Gurukulam,

P.O. Box 1059, Saylorsburg, PA 18353

Phone: 570-992-2339 Ext. 210/234/241

e-mail:[email protected] * website: www.arshavidya.org

You are cordially invited to attend with family and friends

Concert by :Pandit Mukesh Desai

Dignitary Address :Mr. Deven Sharma

Formerly President: Standard and Poors

Anniversary Address:Sri Swami Dayananda Saraswati

“The Creation is the Creator”Question-Answer

Session with

Swami Dayanandaji

(after lunch)

Arsha Vidya Gurukulam’s

Sunday, August 19,2012 – 9:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

At the Gurukulam Campus

26th Anniversary Celebration

Program

Banquet LunchChildcare Provided

74 Astrology


By Dr Prem Kumar Sharma Chandigarh, India: +91-172- 256 2832, 257 2874; Delhi, India: +91-11- 2644 9898,2648 9899; [email protected]; www.premastrologer.com

Stars Foretell: August 18-24, 2012

August 18:

Governed by number 9 and the planet Mars.

You are adventurous, sensitive, courageous,

systematic and dashing. You are full of enthu-

siasm and very helpful, but you need to control

your tendency to behave impatient, short tem-

pered and shy at times. This year you should

expect new assignments and would hold posi-

tion of important responsibilities. Your finan-

cial position stabilizes as past investments start

raking profits. Improved finances bring in

prosperity and happiness at domestic level.

Good year for girls and women as far as ro-

mance is concerned. Some gains through in-

heritance or expensive gifts from relatives can-

not be ruled out. Frequent travel would be un-

dertaken bringing good monetary rewards.

Distant journey maybe overseas for some later

in the year. Avoid lending or borrowing mon-

ey. August, November, February and July will

be highly significant.

August 19:

Ruled by number one and the Sun. You are ac-

tive, confident, intelligent, original and helpful

person. You possess a strong willpower and

you always strive to stay ahead of others, but

you need to control your tendencies towards

behaving introvert, fickle-minded and careless

at times. The coming year would bring you fi-

nancial gains and happiness. You shall leave no

stone unturned to achieve your goals. Busi-

nessmen will venture into new and more prof-

itable avenues. Investment in stocks and real

estate would be highly beneficial. Property dis-

putes if any would get settled to your satisfac-

tion. Health of your spouse would be a matter

of concern. Increase in your medical expenses

seems likely. Time spent with friends would be

worthwhile, as they would be supportive to

your concerns. Meditation and Yoga will prove

to highly rewarding especially for spiritual as

well as physical gains. Renovation or new con-

struction towards the yearend. Expecting

mothers need to take care of their health. Au-

gust, November, March and April will be

eventful.

August 20:

Influenced by number 2 and the Moon. You are

confident, emotional, imaginative, simple and

warm hearted. You enjoy enormous respect

amongst your friends, but you need to check

your tendency to behave stubborn, vindictive

and lazy at times. Although there would be im-

provement in your financial position, saving

would not be as expected. Sudden unforeseen

expenses would always keep you in a financial

crunch. Increase in responsibility or a change

in job for some. New foreign contact or a fi-

nancial transaction will bring handsome re-

sults. A sudden influence of a spiritual person

will have a deep impact on your personality.

Spouse will be understanding and provide you

with love and affection. Ancestral gains for

some. Watch out from acquaintances who be-

have extra friendly. Friends will be supportive

and helpful. New romance for those unattached

adds a zing to their dull life. The months of Oc-

tober, February and June will prove to be sig-

nificant.

August 21:

Ruled by number 3 and the planet Jupiter. You

are energetic, ambitious, dignified, and kind-

hearted person. You are a good listener and an

able administrator and you have an ability to

handle things perfectly even under pressure,

but you need to control your tendency to dom-

inate and behave stubborn at times. This year

your employer would appreciate your confi-

dence and enthusiasm. You would be able to

accomplish many tasks that you earlier thought

as impossible. Monetary benefits would accrue

from new contacts. Pleasure trips or friendly

get-togethers will be exciting and intellectual-

ly stimulating. Family members will be sup-

portive and friends will be helpful. Minor do-

mestic tensions and stress will bother you.

Health needs extra care therefore be careful of

what you consume. The months of October,

January and April will bring desired results.

August 22:

Influenced by number 4 and the planet Uranus.

You are active, practical, enthusiastic, coura-

geous and highly philosophical person. You are

very proud of your traditions, culture and ritu-

als. You are highly religious and possess a very

sharp mind, but you need to check your ten-

dency to behave impatient and stubborn at

times. Your communication skills and charms

would impress those around you. Your income

would improve, but your expenses would be

erratic which would make it extremely difficult

for you to save. New romance for those unat-

tached, but your work is likely to suffer if you

keep fantasizing about this special person. You

should not let anything interfere with your ca-

reer objectives if you desire to achieve your

goals. Elders and children in the family will de-

mand lot of your attention. Doctors and

lawyers can look forward to a remarkable year.

The months of September, December, Febru-

ary and June will be significant.

August 23:

Governed by number 5 and the planet Mercury.

You are intelligent, sharp, sensible, business ori-

ented, dignified, original and dashing person.

People perceive you as a very warm and friend-

ly person, but you need to check your tendency

to behave restless and impatient at times. Fi-

nancially a very favorable period starts this

year, but you should avoid getting involved in

conflict with loved ones. You would make fi-

nancial gains through sale of property, accrual

of rent, dividends or interests. This is also a

good time to invest in long-term investments

and speculations. Children would be a source of

immense happiness and win laurels in their

fields. Pilgrimage or a distant journey will be

high on your cards. The months of November,

March and August will be highly significant.

August 24:

Ruled by number 6 and the planet Venus. You

have a pleasant personality, sharp memory and

you are very fond of worldly pleasures. You are

very methodical, emotional and helpful per-

son. You make your plans and stick to it, but

you need to control your tendency to behave

moody, timid and spendthrift at times. This

year businessmen would expand their ventures

into new and more profitable avenues. You

would do extremely well if you deal in real es-

tate, but expect some opposition to arise from

partners. New romance for some, so make the

best of it. Meditation and Yoga should be prac-

ticed for spiritual as well as physical gains.

Some exhilarating news from your children

will bring happiness later in the year. The

months of August, January and May will be

highly eventful.

Annual Predictions: For those born in this week

Taurus: This week you would make extra

money through your own creative

efforts. You would have some

good ideas and your ability to

discuss those with people who

can provide assistance would help

you in your situation. Your energy

would be high and competitive games and out-

door activities would attract you. Your love life

would blossom as you receive gifts and pres-

ents. Great period to go out for shopping of

expensive jewelry and items. Residential moves

would be beneficial.

Aries: This week your personality would

attract lot of attention. Use your

intelligence to extract favours

from others. New project would

be alluring, but govt. rules and

regulations would pose hin-

drances. Your spouse would love you

and take care of you a lot. Try not to over-

spend on visitors and guests, although gifts

and presents during this period would be plen-

ty. Your ability to stand out in a group will

bring you popularity and recognition.

Sagittarius: This is not the good period to enter

financial agreements. Disagreements

with partners would make it difficult

for you to carry out your plans.

Although you would get substantial

time with your beloved but your rela-

tionship would suffer due to arguments

and silly contradictions. This temporary phase

would soon be over until then you need to spend

maximum time with friends, go out for a vacation or

do things that will keep you relaxed. It would also

be wise to meet experienced people who will broad-

en your awareness concerning your career goals.

Capricorn: Any renovation or decoration that

you carry out this week should be

done with the approval of others.

You would also improve your rep-

utation if you help those who are

under extreme mental pressure.

Your convincing power would have a

deep impact and people would praise you for

your efforts. Your moneymaking ideas would be

highly lucrative. Deals related to land, home, and

property would bring gains. Recognition and

rewards for creative Capricornians during this

period are certain.

Aquarius: Opportunities to travel outstation

for business cannot be ruled out.

Your hectic work schedule

would put you under stress

therefore it would be essential

for you to seek help from others.

You might even feel depressed and

irritated but it would only be a temporary

phase. Participate in activities that would pro-

vide you with entertainment, little adventure

and knowledge. Losses are likely if you invest

on the advice of dubious individuals.

Pisces: This week some arguments could ruin

your mood. Take your time before

making any crucial decision. Do

not make hasty decisions or you

could blow situation out of pro-

portion and ruin a long lasting

relationship. Be careful not to get

involved in easy money making schemes.

Gambling certainly is not on your cards. You

should try to put some extra time and energy

into learning additional knowledge and skills

that will help you in your career.

Cancer: Unexpected changes regarding finan-

cial and legal matters would be

favourable. As your energy

would be high, you would be

able to achieve more than what

you expect. Although office pres-

sures would increase during this peri-

od, you still would be in a glorious and ener-

getic mood. Little time for meditation and yoga

would be important for mental as well as physi-

cal gains. Do not neglect your beloved no mat-

ter how hectic may be your work schedule.

Gemini: This week you would accomplish a

lot through joint efforts. You

would take a position of a leader

and guide others to success.

Your co-workers, colleagues

and seniors would notice your

ability, which would work to your

advantage. Spouse would be caring and pro-

vide you with love and affection. Go for social

events that would improve your social circle.

Added knowledge that you acquire during this

week, will give you advantage in your career.

Leo:Good period to sign new business deals

and alliances. Businessmen and

investors would see past invest-

ments reaping profits. Good

week to call important people

over to your place, as you would

gain valuable information and knowl-

edge. You would also have little free time to

yourself, which you should spend in helping

those who are incapable of taking care of their

personal affairs. Opportunities to travel to a

distant place for some.

Virgo: A highly result oriented week,

where efforts bring desired

goals. Your career would get

a boost, as you would be able

to gather small part- t ime

projects to increase your earn-

ing ability. Problems in your per-

sonal life would enlarge much beyond

your expectations, if you were not open

about how you feel. Use your intelligence

and charms to attract attention at social

get-together.

Libra: Your career and your earning abil-

ity would take an upward

climb and your position

would strengthen amongst

your peers. Your original

ideas would win acceptance

from others, and people would seek your

advice. However, you would be overly

tired and need extra rest towards the

weekend. Do not trust people with impor-

tant information.

Scorpio: This week you would have influen-

tial and experienced people

around you who would con-

stantly be a source of inspira-

tion and support. You need to do

things that would improve your

health since your body would be

highly receptive to change. Sudden good news

later in the week brings happiness and cheers

for the entire family. Travelling will not be as

beneficial as expected. Children and spouse

will be demanding.

Humor 75


India is basking in the glory of its

most successful Olympics cam-

paign ever, with four of its ath-

letes going home with bronze

medals, two with silver medals, and

one with Usain Bolt's autograph.

India's Sports Minister Ajay

Maken congratulated the Olympic

team on their "super success" at the

London Olympics. "At a single

Olympics, you have won more

medals than at the previous three

Olympics combined," he said.

"Thanks to you, we have gone from

winning 20 Olympic medals in our

history to 26, which means that

India, in terms of world ranking, is

now well-ahead of Michael Phelps."

His reference to Phelps was a

deliberate response to critics who

had compared the American swim-

mer's all-time record haul of 22

medals to that of India, whose ath-

letes in previous decades would win

a single medal at each Olympics

with such regularity, many Indians

believed there was a quota system in

play. "It was never a question of

whether we would win one medal,"

said sports historian Abdul Ibrahim.

"It was always a question of who

would win that medal."

Indian sports fans had brushed

aside the comparison to Phelps, say-

ing it didn't bother them at all, but

soon after wrestler Sushil Kumar

won a silver medal, the 26th in the

country's history, thousands of

ecstatic fans poured into the streets

of New Delhi, some of them waving

signs that said "Sorry, Michael

Phelps – you'll never catch India!"

and "India leaves Michael Phelps in

the dust."

Kumar also won a bronze medal at

the Beijing Olympics, making him

the first Indian to win multiple

medals in an individual event. Indian

athletes recorded several other firsts

in London: Saina Nehwal became

the first Indian to win a medal in

badminton, Mary Kom became the

first Indian woman to win a medal in

boxing, and tennis players Leander

Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi became

the first Indians to run victory laps

after each other's loss.

"Even those who did not win

medals gave it their best effort and

made us proud," Maken said. "Two

of our athletes reached the final in

discus throw, two of our boxers

came within one victory of winning

a medal, and our field hockey team

… well, they were on time for all six

matches."

India has now won six medals in

boxing and wrestling in its history,

and would have won many more,

experts believe, if not for Gandhi's

messages of nonviolence. "When

Mary Kom won her medal in box-

ing, an American friend said to me,

'Gandhi must be rolling in his

grave,'" Ibrahim recalled. "And I

said, 'Well, it's a good thing that he

was cremated.'"

India even did well in a speed

event in London, with Irfan

Kolothum Thodi finishing in the top

ten in the 20 km walk. A confident

Thodi, who broke the Indian nation-

al record, threw out a challenge to

Usain Bolt, the fastest man in the

world: "You might be able to outrun

me, Usain, but I can out-walk you.

Just organize a walk. Anywhere, any

place, I am ready for you."

India's medal winners were

promptly rewarded with cash

awards and promotions. Many of

the country's top athletes support

themselves through government

jobs. Kumar, the wrestler, works for

Indian Railways, where he – appro-

priately enough – takes care of pins.

Kom, a five-time world boxing

champion, is a Deputy

Superintendent of Police. She is

occasionally called upon to interro-

gate suspects, but they usually con-

fess before they get to meet her.

Sports Minister Maken was in

such a celebratory mood after the

Olympics that he even extended

warm wishes to Madhura Nagendra,

the Olympic gatecrasher who

walked with the Indian team at the

opening ceremony. “We did so well

at the London Olympics that we

have invited her to walk with us

again in four years."

India enjoys most successful Olympic Games ever, and how!

Humor with Melvin Durai

After wrestler Sushil Kumar won a silver medal, the26th in India’s history, ecstatic fans poured into thestreets of Delhi, some of them waving signs that said,

"Sorry, Michael Phelps – you'll never catch India!"Phelps’ individual record haul is 22 medals.

When most people suc-

cumb to their baser

nature and want to retal-

iate, violence becomes the norm.

But when someone is responding

nonviolently, it is so unusual that

others notice it. They see that we

remain calm, cool, and collected in

the face of the day-to-day quarrels

in which people are engaged and

realize we have some special qual-

ity. This often leads them to ask us

how we can be so calm in the face

of other people’s violence. We can

then take the opportunity to tell

them that we are leading a life of

meditation and ethical living

which is resulting in inner spiritual

experiences. We are able to

explain to them the benefits of a

nonviolent way of life in keeping

our mind and emotions calm and

explain how it has a beneficial

effect on our health. We can talk

about how we experience less ten-

sion resulting in less stress-related

ailments. We can talk about how

such a way of life helps us get

along better with people in our

family, in our neighborhood, and

at our jobs. We can explain that

when we do not take revenge, the

person who attacked us eventually

comes around and befriends us.

Such an example is powerful. One

by one, others will see the benefit

of leading a nonviolent way of life.

Similarly, we can be a model of

truthfulness. It has become all too

common for people to be dishon-

est. Dishonesty takes many forms.

Some people think their dishon-

esty is harmless, such as stealing

from their boss or company at

work, borrowing money from their

friends or family on the pretense

of paying it back but never paying

it back, telling a small lie, or being

deceitful. It is rare in this day and

age to find someone who is truth-

ful and honest.

When people see someone being

honest, it is so rare that others take

notice of it. They say, “Wow, look

at that person who admitted to

making a mistake, or who returned

money they found that was not

rightfully theirs. That person has

guts! That person has strong

morals and convictions!” The

result is that others respect the

honest person and say, “I wish I

could have such bravery to own up

to my mistakes.” This alone may

make others ask us how we have

such moral fortitude. At that point

we can explain what is giving us

the strength to be honest. We can

explain how we meditate and see

the Light of God within. We can

explain how we realize that God

within knows whatever we do. If

God sees everything, there is

nowhere we can hide from God.

Thus, how can we fear the judg-

ment of other people, when God,

the Source of all, knows what we

have done and has forgiven us and

requested us to do no more?

Hazur Baba Sawan Singh Ji

Maharaj used to tell people that

they are forgiven if they “do no

more.” We are all human. We are

bound to make mistakes. The key

is that having made a mistake and

acknowledging it, we make

amends so that we do not repeat

that mistake.

If we are honest, we will earn the

respect of others. Then, when we

talk about the value of a spiritual

life, others will see that we are

leading such a life and they will be

more inclined to want to do the

same.

Many are egotistical. They think

too much of themselves. They

boost themselves up at the expense

of others. They brag about how

great they are. They present them-

selves as being better than others.

It is noticeable when someone is

humble. When we see others who

are realistic about themselves,

accepting their talents as well as

their faults in an honest way, it is

noticeable. When we find that

someone treats others with equali-

ty and respect, it is noticeable. In a

world where there is so much big-

otry and prejudice, it is refreshing

to find someone who loves all peo-

ple as equals. When we see some-

one who gets along with many

people, we, in turn, have great

regard for such a person, and we

want to find out his or her secret.

We ask how is it that that person is

accepted by people of all national-

ities, religions, countries, or walks

of life in such a positive way.

When that person explains that

through meditation he or she sees

the Light of God shining in all

people and sees all as one family

of God, others are impressed.

Others see that we have a life with

less turmoil and more friends.

They see that we are even-keeled

and calm wherever we go and are

not afraid to be with people who

are different from us. They, too,

want to lead a life with a wider

range of tolerance and friendship

and they are inspired to be like us.

We find many are selfish.

Selfishness is rampant in all

spheres of life. Why is it sensa-

tional when it is reported in the

news that someone did something

giving and selfless? It is such a

rare quality that it often makes

front page news. We hear of peo-

ple who do not have a lot of

money but give generously to oth-

ers. We find people donating their

time to help others. We read of

people who donate a kidney to

save someone else’s life. Some

people help the poor, the needy,

and the downtrodden. These self-

less acts have an effect because

most people tend to think first of

themselves. If people see we are

giving and caring, they admire us.

They see that we have a big heart.

They see the joy we get from giv-

ing. They too want to partake of

such joy. When they ask us how

we can be so giving, we can point

to our life of meditation in which

we see that we are all part of one

family of God. They will learn that

we treat all as one family, and that

we give because we consider all as

brothers and sisters in the Lord.

They realize that our giving comes

from a place of love, in which we

feel joy in helping others. The joy

that we get from giving is conta-

gious and others want to lead such

a life as well.

People see that by leading a veg-

etarian lifestyle we enjoy better

health. They find that we have

more energy and more stamina.

They see that we are less afflicted

with the diseases caused by eating

meat. They see the vegetarian diet

makes us calmer and more bal-

anced. When they see the benefits

we experience, they too may be

inspired to adopt such a vegetarian

or vegan lifestyle.

Some people drink alcohol and

take drugs. In many places of

work, Friday is a time in which

people meet for “Happy Hour.”

There, they engage in drinking to

feel good. There are numerous tel-

evision commercials for beer and

wine, depicting the happiness peo-

ple experience by drinking. In pri-

vate circles, people speak of how

good they feel when they get high

on drugs. There is a tremendous

drug culture in modern societies.

People seem to feel they cannot be

happy without alcohol or drugs.

But we all know that that happi-

ness is temporary and comes at a

high price. They may feel good for

a few minutes, but later they feel

sick to their stomach. They may

get addicted and require more and

more to make them maintain their

high. Drugs and alcohol lead to

impaired judgment and poor motor

skills, which in turn can lead to

deadly car accidents. People turn

to crime to get money to buy drugs

and alcohol. This leads to people

getting hurt and those perpetrating

the crimes going to prison. In

some cases drugs and alcohol lead

to disease and death.

When people see that we are

happy and blissful without drugs

and alcohol, they ask us how we

can feel so good. We can then

explain that meditation gives us a

natural state of intoxication. We

can explain how the sweet nectar

of the divine Wine within provides

more intoxication than any intoxi-

cation which outer drugs and alco-

hol can give us. We can talk about

how we get this divine bliss within

that lasts twenty-four hours. There

is no hang-over. There are no side

effects. We do not pass out or get

sick. We do not have to steal from

anyone to get this bliss. We do not

have to cause car accidents or

commit crimes. Rather than lower-

ing our consciousness through

drugs and alcohol, we are raising

our consciousness to spiritual

heights and even attaining God-

consciousness. The joy people see

we have in our lives will inspire

them to also want to partake of

that sweet honey within.

When people who see us medi-

tating notice a change in us, they

are also inspired to experience the

same change. They see that medi-

tation makes us calmer and more

balanced. They see that we are

able to deal with the challenges of

life in a much more even manner.

They see that even though every-

one goes through the challenges of

financial problems, health prob-

lems, relationship difficulties, and

other challenges, we sail through

them much more easily than most

people. This makes people wonder

what secret we hold that helps us

face life’s struggles with more for-

titude.

Finally, when they see how

blissful and intoxicated we are

without the use of unnatural means

such as drugs and alcohol, they too

want such happiness. Just like the

princess who saw the joy that peo-

ple had when they tasted the

sweetness of honey and how they

wanted to share that delicious taste

with others, people will see the joy

we experience from meditation

and they will want to enjoy that as

well.

I am reminded of a verse by Sant

Darshan Singh Ji Maharaj which

says:

Who has said that you must

drink in secret?

This is divine Wine that you

must share with others.

While drinking this Nectar, for-

get the sorrows of life and the

pains of the world.

And hum songs of beauty and

love.

We can appreciate what a bless-

ing it is to have a Master and to

receive the spiritual teachings

from him. This is a valuable gift

that actually is sent to us by God

through the Masters. God wants

each of us to have the gift. If we

are lucky enough to receive such a

gift from a Master, we should

treasure it and put it to use. We

should make the best use of the

gift by spending time in medita-

tion. Let us enjoy the divine honey

of the Light and Sound within. Let

us then travel on the divine nectar

back to the Lord.

Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharajis an internationally recognizedspiritual leader and Master ofJyoti Meditation who affirms thetranscendent oneness at the heartof all religions and mystic tradi-tions, emphasizing ethical livingand meditation as building blocksfor achieving inner and outerpeace. www.sos.org.

Having a master is a blessingConcluding part of the discourse 'Sharing the divine honey'

By Sant Rajinder SinghJi Maharaj

We can appreciate what ablessing it is to have a

Master and to receive thespiritual teachings from

him. This is a valuable giftthat actually is sent to us by

God through the Masters.God wants each of us to

have the gift. If we are luckyenough to receive such a gift

from a Master, we shouldtreasure it and put it to use.

76 Spiritual Awareness


SATSANG IN AMITYVILLESunday, September 2, 3:00PM

Meditation: Journey to Realms of Light

United Palace Theater, 4140 Broadway (175th St.), NY 10033

Science of Spirituality Meditation Center79 County Line Road, Amityville, Long Island, NY 11701

His Holinesssant rajinder singh ji maharaj

In New YorkSATSANG IN AMITYVILLE

FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2012, 8:00PMsaccao Kja,anao kI Koaja

Sachey Khajanae ki Khoj

SATSANG IN WASHINGTON HEIGHTS Saturday, September 1, 6:00PM

Key to Spiritual Wealth and Happiness English, with simultaneous translation into Spanish

Naamdan* following the talk

*In-depth instructions for meditation on the inner Light and Sound

English. Naamdan* following the talk

888.666.1990 [email protected] www.sos.org/usa/tristate


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